Human Rights Watch (HRW) has expressed concerns over what it termed as an alleged assault on Sri Lanka’s rule of law by the executive president.
HRW South Asia Director, Meenakshi Ganguly issuing a statement urged Sri Lanka’s international partners to keep up the pressure until there is “genuine reform to end systemic abuses” so that such partners will not be “deflected with unreliable promises or empty gestures”.
HRW also stated that the Government’s recent decision to pardon of 16 prisoners convicted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), however welcome, does not address the urgent need to repeal what the HRW refers to as a draconian law.
“To mark a Buddhist festival on June 24, 2021, the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa pardoned 94 prisoners, including 16 people convicted under the PTA. The law has long enabled arbitrary detention and confessions obtained through torture, and been used primarily against members of Tamil and Muslim minorities. The president also pardoned a political ally, Duminda Silva, a former member of parliament who was convicted for the 2011 murder of a rival politician,” HRW stated.
Responding to this action, Ganguly further charged that the President’s recent pardons highlight the need for genuine rule of law in Sri Lanka, not favors to friends or blatantly cynical measures to keep trade preferences.
“The release of people imprisoned for years under the Prevention of Terrorism Act in no way removes the need to replace the abusive law or the need for pressure from Sri Lanka’s partners to do so,” she further claimed.
The HRW is of the opinion that since taking office in 2019, the Rajapaksa administration has used the PTA particularly against members of the Tamil and Muslim communities, while taking no action against those inciting violence and discrimination against minority groups.
“Among those still detained under the act are Hejaaz Hizbullah, a Muslim human rights lawyer who has been in custody since April 14, 2020, and Ahnaf Jazeem, a Muslim poet who has been held since May 16, 2020, for a book of verses promoting peace and tolerance,” the HRW said.
Referring to the recent amendments made to the PTA, HRW alleged that such amendments have made the act even more “abusive”.
“In March, new regulations were announced that would allow the authorities to incarcerate anyone accused of causing “religious, racial, or communal disharmony” for up to two years without trial. In June, the president announced that a police facility in Colombo, which has been a notorious torture site, would be used for holding PTA prisoners,” the HRW claimed.
In another allegation levelled against the President, HRW claimed that under the current leadership, the security forces have harassed and intimidated numerous civil society groups and human rights defenders, especially in the Tamil-majority north and east.
“For many years there have been domestic and international calls to replace the PTA with rights-respecting legislation. United Nations experts and human rights groups including Human Rights Watch have extensively documented grave abuses under the PTA,” HRW concluded.