FCEJ warns anti-terror laws could curb dissent

The Feminist Collective for Economic Justice (FCEJ) has criticised the National People’s Power (NPP) Government’s proposed anti-terrorism and organised crime legislation, warning that the laws could undermine fundamental rights, restrict public dissent and expand State powers.

In a statement issued on Tuesday (20), the FCEJ accused the Government of pursuing what it described as oppressive legislation alongside economic policies that disproportionately burden low-income households, workers and other vulnerable communities.

The collective expressed particular concern over the proposed Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill (PSTA) and the Prevention of Organised Crime Bill. It claimed that the proposed laws could broaden police powers, weaken judicial oversight and create scope for legitimate protests and political opposition to be criminalised.

The FCEJ also criticised the Government’s economic policies, including austerity measures, privatisation and initiatives to attract foreign investment, claiming that these policies had increased financial pressures on ordinary citizens.

It further raised concerns over the proposed legislation governing non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and other recently introduced laws, alleging that they could restrict freedom of association, expression and public participation.

The collective urged the NPP Government to reconsider its legislative and economic agenda, accusing it of moving away from its electoral mandate to address exploitation and oppression.

Full statement below:

The Feminist Collective for Economic Justice (FCEJ) condemns the oppressive laws, particularly the most recent Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill (PSTA) and the Organized Crime Bill, proposed by the government in October 2026. While addressing crime and terrorism, is a legitimate objective of a government, the unprecedented criminalization of poverty, expansion of broad policing power and the usurpation of the people’s judicial power are extremely concerning. 

We believe that a closer look at the context reveals whose interests this legislative agenda serves. Authoritarianism fuelled by right wing fearmongering along the lines of terrorism, criminalizing migrants, minorities and the poor, and condemning countries of the global south as corrupt and indisciplined, is a global trend that protects wealth and wealth making. Similarly, economic policies that favour the wealthy have always required the strong police powers of the state to counter the dissent, disgruntlement, desperation and violence that are products of exploitation of labour and environment on the lives of ordinary people. It is clear that economic policies are driven by corporate greed in the form of a rapidly expanding export sector, mineral mining, land intensive green transitioning, financialization and privatization of essential public services. 

The intensifying crisis upon the lives of the poor and working people of the country is all too visible. Economic insecurity of households prevails with continued low wages, increasing wage theft and increased cost of living. This has led to the expansion of household debt and exploitation of the working poor by predatory financial institutions. Precarious informal labour has expanded, increasing harassment and exploitation in the workplace. These stresses are compounded by the impact of climate change on access to water, agriculture and fishing livelihoods and on working conditions in plantations and factories, thus increasing economic burdens on families recovering from recurrent climate crises. There is widespread desperation to make ends meet, hold on to work, find multiple sources of income to feed one’s family, and thus the compulsion to migrate for work.  

Anti-People Economic Policies

It is in the context of a growing frustration of ordinary people that the NPP government commits to expediting economic policies of privatization of essential services and continues to borrow foreign loans with conditionalities that work against its people. The NPP has continued austerity measures with removal of subsidies, low public spending and diminishing social security. It is pursuing private foreign investment without adequate protections for labour and environment as seen in the rush to implement large scale projects for mining, solar farms, wind power, palm oil plantations, and special economic zones. The corporate capture of the State is enabling bulldozing by an elite agenda that is pursuing wealth at the cost of people. It does so in the name of economic stability and fighting corruption. It is an economic trend driven by forces that are well aware of peoples’ hardship and desperation, and anticipates public protest and agitation. And so the ‘enemy’ is created and resisted by the State.  It is the citizen protestor complaining of hardships and demanding the government steps down, the worker engaged in strike action that slows down production and the environmental activist who resists large scale projects by foreign investors, who are cast in the role of ‘enemy’. Anti people economic agendas have always been accompanied by oppressive laws. 

Anti-People Laws

We are witnessing a rapid increase in the number of oppressive laws presented and passed under the NPP government In October 2026, we saw the government present the Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill (PSTA), which seeks to repeal and replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979. The Bill proposes a wider definition of ‘terrorism’ that potentially considers all forms of political opposition, rallies, protests and acts that ‘compel a government or international organization to do or abstain from doing any act’, as terrorism. The Bill proposes broad powers to the police, armed forces and coastguard, unprecedented power to the President in relation to proscribing organizations,  unprecedented power to the Attorney General to settlements whereby prosecutions are deferred in return for public apologies or reparations, and restricts judicial supervision over arrests and detention. The PSTA lacks meaningful safeguards and access to justice for those against whom such laws have been arbitrarily or illegally used.

The Prevention of Organised Crime Bill introduces powers similar to those in the PSTA and additionally allows for confessions before police officers to be used in court. The confession clause is reminiscent of the same in the PTA that led to torture and cruel and degrading treatment of detainees to obtain confessions which were later used as the only evidence to convict and punish persons. Similarly the Prevention of Foreign Terrorist Fighters Bill applies to citizens and non-citizens who participate in offences which are, once again, so broadly defined, encapsulating acts which may be far removed from the core offence of ‘terrorism’.  

The proposed NGO Bill demands mandatory registration of all voluntary social activities including of any groups of five or more working together, notification for any crowdfunding, imposes a duty on non governmental organizations to align with government policy, fines up to a maximum of one million rupees for administrative wrongdoings and lapses such as failing to provide information,  and overall restricts freedom of association and expression.

In 2026 alone this government passed the Convention on the Suppression of Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Act, The Prevention of Money Laundering (Amendment) Act and Financial Transactions Reporting (Amendment) Act, creating legalised intrusion into privacy and State surveillance. The Microfinance and Credit Regulatory Authority Act of 2026 also dismantles community savings and fails to institute meaningful safeguards against exploitation of indebtedness, which in itself has significant socio-economic consequences. These laws are new legislative layers over an existing oppressive legislative landscape such as the Online Safety Act, the ICCPR Act, the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the Public Security Ordinance, and the plethora of colonial penal legislation that has been consistently deployed against a democratically and peacefully protesting public. The scheme and tone of all these laws is one of consolidating power, controlling people and expanding the power of officials to penalize citizen activity. 

Listen to People and Change Course 

In the two years the National People’s Power (NPP) has been in government after being elected with an overwhelming mandate for system change, we have witnessed the continuation of the oppressive laws and burdensome economic policies of Wickremesinghe’s two year stint. The NPP has opted for macroeconomic stability at the expense of increased precarity for the common people, especially working women who are shouldering the burden. 

The pile up of all these oppressive laws accompanying economic policies that have and will continue to fail people is not a coincidence. It is chilling to watch the changing legislative landscape, without adequate explanation or justification and without any real consideration of public opinion or feedback. 

We recall that it was in the late 1970s under the leadership of J R Jayawardene and the aggressive drive to liberalize the economy that development and deployment of a scheme of oppressive laws (Public Security Ordinance, Essential Services Act, Prevention of Terrorism Act) with similar intensity was last deployed.

We call out the anti-people project of the NPP government. You were voted in on a mandate to specifically reverse exploitation and oppression. You are failing to hear the ordinary people of Sri Lanka, you are failing to see the irreversible impact of the economic policies and police powers on the most vulnerable, you are promising those who support you a better life while building institutions of oppression that will work against their welfare, and your actions serve elite interests in the name of macro-economic stability and growth. Change course, it’s already too late.