“Commission does not dispute that emergency regulations are needed at a time like this in order to provide protection to the public and to restore normalcy. Similarly, the Commission believes that if these regulations are implemented by relevant officers in a manner that safeguards everyone’s rights and with cultural and religious sensitivity, security measures can be carried out successfully with the
cooperation of every community.” says HTC SL in a letter to President Sirisena.
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
07/05/2019
H.E. Maithripala Sirisena
President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Presidential Residence
Paget Place
Colombo 7.
Your Excellency,
Guidelines for Implementing Emergency Regulations
Given the terrifying events that came to pass this past 21st of April, your Excellency declared a state of emergency on 22nd April under the provisions of the Public Security Ordinance and adopted Emergency Regulations No. 1 of 2019.
Our Commission does not dispute that emergency regulations are needed at a time like this in order to provide protection to the public and to restore normalcy. Similarly, the Commission believes that if these regulations are implemented by relevant officers in a manner that safeguards everyone’s rights and with cultural and religious sensitivity, security measures can be carried out successfully with the
cooperation of every community.
Immediately after the state of emergency was lifted in 2011, regulations were adopted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. By letter dated 2016.05.18 (Attachment 01) we presented to your Excellency a series of suggested guidelines to be followed when implementing those regulations Attachment 01 – i).We are pleased to recall that you issued those guidelines as Presidential Guidelines , with some edits, to the relevant security authorities (Attachment 02).
Since those guidelines are directly applicable to the present Emergency Regulations as well, it would be of great assistance to further strengthen the security measures if your Excellency could reissue those Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka guidelines as applicable to the current Emergency Regulations. In addition to those guidelines we hereby send the suggested guidelines to be followed during search operations for your attention (Attachment 03).
We expect your Excellency’s fullest cooperation in this regard.
Chairperson
Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka
For attachment please see this PDF : Guidelines-for-Implementing-the-Emergency-Regulations-English