Search Results for: sri lanka

For years, Sri Lanka has occupied the international spotlight for one of its contentious laws—the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The PTA was introduced in 1979 during the Sri Lankan Civil War using the emergency law provisions in Part II of the Public Security Ordinance. While similar laws exist in other nations, showing widespread acceptance [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Friday condemned Sri Lanka’s proposed Anti-Terrorism Act, arguing that it would allow authorities to systematically violate fundamental human rights. HRW recommended that the government withdraw the bill until it can properly uphold international human rights standards. The current format of the bill, intended to replace the 1979 Prevention of Terrorism Act, [...]

A gazette notification issued Friday by the Sri Lankan President’s secretary announced that President Ranil Wickremesinghe has suspended parliament until February 8, when he is to announce new long-term policies to address various issues. One of these issues is the economic crisis and clear bankruptcy Sri Lanka faces. These policies will continue to be in [...]

Following a decision of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka last week ordering top former authorities, including former president Mathripala Sirisena, to compensate the victims of the Easter Sunday Attack in 2019, spokesperson Jeremy Laurence of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) urged the Sri Lankan government to provide full compensation to [...]

The Canadian government announced Tuesday that it had placed sanctions on four Sri Lankan officials, including former Presidents Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Mahinda Rajapaksa, in response to the Sri Lankan government’s crackdown on human rights during the Sri Lankan civil war between 1983 and 2009. The sanctions impose restrictions under Section 2 of the Special Economic [...]

Following months of protests over rapidly rising inflation rates and economic turmoil in Sri Lanka, the government has imposed a series of repressive measures against its people. Officials were banned from expressing their own concerns about Sri Lanka’s beleaguered economy via social media platforms. Certain neighborhoods were subject to heightened security requirements which included an [...]

Sri Lankan law students are reporting for JURIST on the situation in that country since mass protests in July that forced the ouster of sitting Sri Lanka president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the imposition of emergency rule and the parliamentary election of current president Ranil Wickremesinghe. Sandun Batagoda, a final year law student at the Faculty of [...]

Human Rights Watch (HRW) Monday alleged that Sri Lanka’s proposed Bureau of Rehabilitation Bill puts citizens at great risk of human rights abuses. The bill, submitted to Parliament on September 23, allows for the compulsory detention of any “drug dependant persons, ex-combatants, members of violent extremist groups and any other groups of persons” into military staffed “rehabilitation [...]

Muhammad Rayhan Ahmed is JURIST’s Bangladesh correspondent and a law student at the University of Dhaka. This is his inaugural report.  “No one believed. They listened at his heart. Little—less—nothing!—and that ended it. No more to build on there. And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.” These lines are [...]

Mass protests and a presidential ouster have hoisted Sri Lanka into the international spotlight through much of 2022. But have these societal upheavals improved matters for the island nation, and placed it on track for a brighter future? The answer may depend on who you ask, and how they think Sri Lanka could stand to [...]