The Sri Lankan authorities must immediately lift emergency decrees and firing orders that confer excessive powers on the police and military, and take immediate action to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of peaceful protesters, said Amnesty International. Opposition parties have criticized the state of emergency as a government measure to crack down on dissent. On July 20, at the request of security forces, a court in Colombo issued an order prohibiting people from gathering in certain areas of the protest site, which has been peaceful since April 2022. We no longer have an active conflict to justify the extension of the state of emergency, so it is likely that the current state of emergency will expire or be lifted sooner rather than later. However, this raises deeper questions about the circumstances that, in the government`s view, necessitated the invocation of these powers. These include the lack of post-conflict reconciliation and failure to embrace diversity, the culture of criminal impunity and selective application of the law, social tolerance of violence, police failures to have fundamental responsibility for maintaining law and order, the impotence of secular authority in the face of religious power, and similar medieval ignorance and superstition. that allow atavistic tribalism to flourish in our society. Sri Lanka`s parliament has extended a state of emergency declared by President Ranil Wickremesinghe as his government cracks down on protesters it accuses of violence as it tries to find a way out of the country`s worst economic crisis. Wickremesinghe declared a state of emergency last week as interim president before lawmakers elected him for the remainder of Gotabaya Rajapaksa`s five-year term until 2024. Sri Lanka`s last state of emergency lasted 28 years and ended in August 2011 after being extended continuously by governments since it was first declared in 1983. On 6 March 2018, President Maithripala Sirisena declared a state of emergency to address and contain violence in Kandy district, where violent attacks on the Muslim community resulted in extensive property damage and two deaths. Recent statements by the Presidential Secretary and the Prime Minister on the extension have raised concerns. The PSO is a colonial law that has been criticized by several analysts.
Sri Lanka, which first declared a state of emergency in 1958, remained under a near-uninterrupted state of emergency between 1983 and 2009 while fighting the LTTE. In March 2018, a state of emergency was declared for 13 days to control deadly clashes between Buddhists and Muslims, particularly in the Kandy region. « Shooting orders give a license to kill. Violent crowds must be contained, but murderous violence must not be the first resort. Any restriction of human rights when necessary must be necessary and proportionate to the needs of the situation and must not be used as an instrument against freedom of expression, peaceful assembly, the right to personal security, liberty and protection from arbitrary detention. Furthermore, any exceptions to the human rights guarantees under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Sri Lanka is a party, should be formally communicated to other states parties with a clear explanation of the reasons for this decision, » said Yamini Mishra. Two activists involved in mass protests to topple Sri Lanka`s president have been arrested, police said, as parliament extended strict emergency laws to restore order. How does Sri Lanka`s legal framework for states of emergency fit into international standards? « Emergency decrees that have come into force in the name of public security must not be used as a pretext for further human rights violations. Amnesty International is deeply concerned that such arrangements could be used as a springboard for further action against people`s fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly, the right to personal security, freedom and the right not to be arbitrarily detained.
« When the new president takes power, he must ensure that the Sri Lankan people can exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly, including freedom of expression and respect for their rights. These emergency decrees have a chilling effect on society. It is time for the Sri Lankan authorities to stand with their people and not repeat the mistakes of the past. Emergency decrees that come into force in the name of public security must not be used as a pretext for further human rights violations. According to the Public Security Ordinance (PSO) of 1947, the President may declare a state of emergency for all or part of Sri Lanka if he « considers it appropriate in the interests of public safety and the maintenance of public order, or to maintain supplies and services essential to the life of the community. » After the president declared a state of emergency on 6 May and imposed a nationwide curfew from 9 to 12 May, retroactive emergency decrees were issued on the night of 9 May. They give the police and armed forces broad powers to search for and arrest « suspects » without proper procedural safeguards.