Image: FMM convener C.Dodawatta at the press conference on 18 March 2019. MARCH 18, 2019/ Colombo, Sri Lanka. Media rights activists on Monday urged the Sri Lankan government to withdraw proposed anti-terror legislation, calling it is a set of draconian laws aimed at suppressing the media freedom and democratic rights. The new Counter-Terrorism bill approved […]
CTA
-
-
Extensive public consultations a must on Sri Lanka’s counter-terror bill – Kishali Pinto Jayawardene
In contrast to Colombo’s largely polarized sound and fury on the Counter-Terror Bill, it is refreshing to look at the manner in which South Africa has dealt with uncannily similar dilemmas of balancing national security imperatives and constitutional rights in bringing its counter-terror law into effect more than a decade ago. Shared legacies of horrific […]
-
Applauding the draft CTA is akin to a merry drunk dancing at the edge of a cliff – Kishali Pinto Jayawardena
Sri Lanka’s draft Counter Terrorism Act (CTA) is not a curate’s egg of mostly good with a little bit of bad thrown in. Rather, it is the reverse. The draft Act is a whole lot of bad with some good thrown into the unappealing mixture. Ingenious traps by ‘deep state’ security agents Certainly it is […]
-
UNHRC 40: Sri Lanka’s proposed CTA will again lead to a situation of abduction & enforced disappearances – INGOs
Mr. President, We, Franciscans International, Amnesty International, International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR) take note on the mission report of the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights while countering terrorism to Sri Lanka in July 2017. We endorse the recommendation to institute a moratorium on the […]
-
Even in a more beneficial form, the counter terror bill raises warning signals – Kishally Pinto Jayawardena.
Amidst the political turmoil that took place in late October 2018, it was wholly predictable that Sri Lanka’s Counter-Terrorism Bill approved by the Cabinet just the month before, quietly slipped past public scrutiny. At a time when the country’s constitutional order itself had been shaken to its (albeit not entirely steady) foundations, the Bill was […]
-
The menacing promise of the CTA, gift -wrapped for the future
Image: Resistance to repression in Venezuela. Only the naïve would believe the rosily repeated plea by the European Union (EU) that ‘the implementation of twenty seven international conventions is the only criterion for regaining’ the GSP Plus trade facility for Sri Lanka. Posing infinitely greater harm Repetition does not make what is false, true though this […]
-
Counter Terrorism Act: “It is horrendous, and I feel sick after reading it”
Image: Sri Lanka police known for its brutality. by Anurangi Singh. Senior academics, human rights activists, and judicial experts are strongly critical of the proposed policy and legal framework on the proposed CTA, a draft of which had been submitted before the Cabinet last week. Prof. Nihal Jayawickrama, former Secretary to the Ministry of Justice, […]
-
TNA shocked: Draft CTA curtails civil liberties, erodes judicial control over the security apparatus.
Issuing a statement Tamil National Alliance says it is shocked by the extent to which the draft framework curtails civil liberties, erodes judicial control over the state security apparatus and the staggering potential for abuse and torture. We are unequivocally committed to supporting a legal framework that would prevent and punish acts of terrorism in […]
