- Human rights lobby groups line up to fire
- Amnesty International adds to growing calls for
Last week it was a case of the idiom, giving with one hand and taking away with the other, coming true. The freeing of human rights defender and lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah and journalist Keerthi Rathnayake were small victories for those who had been lobbying for their release for months. This week however, TV journalist Chamuditha Samarawickrama and Shehan Malaka, a crusader for justice for the Easter Sunday attacks, were at the receiving end.
On Monday, Malaka was arrested by the Panadura police for a statement he had made about the Easter Sunday attacks at a media briefing one year ago. It was reported that Malaka, currently on bail, was arrested on the advice of the attorney general.
It was also in the early hours of last Monday morning that Samarawickrama’s suburban residence came under attack by a group of unidentified men in a white van. They had entered the residential complex where Samarawickrama lives after threatening the security guard. On reaching the house they had thrown stones and excrement at it, smashed the windows and shot at it.
“The attack on Chamuditha Samarawickrama’s residence is eerily reminiscent of the violence that journalists faced during Sri Lanka’s civil war,” said the New York based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a statement it issued soon after the attack. “Sri Lanka authorities must rectify the nation’s abysmal record of allowing attacks against journalists to go unpunished, hold the perpetrators to account, and ensure Samarawickrama’s safety. It asked the government to conduct an immediate and impartial investigation into the attack, release the findings to the public and hold the perpetrators accountable.
Samarawickrama, who was the media liaison for former President Maithripala Sirisena and whose aggressive interviewing style has become his hallmark has been exposing corruption and criticizing the Rajapakses.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse who rang Samarawickrama following the attack asked him to provide details about the attackers and Mass Media Minister Dullas Alahapperuma pledged that justice will be delivered with the assistance of the government, police and media. Ironically, Lanka Facebook, known for its posts which are critical of the government, also condemned the attack.
The CPJ has repeatedly documented how government actors used white vans to abduct and attack journalists throughout the decades-long civil war, which ended in 2009. The Paris based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which has become one of the world’s leading defenders and promoters of freedom of information and which has consultative status in several multilateral forums including the UN and the Council of Europe, reported that at least 14 journalists were killed between 2005 – 2019 when Mahinda Rajapakse was President and his brother Gotabaya was defence secretary. Among them are Sunday Leader editor Lasantha Wickremetunge and Dharmeratnem Sivaram aka Taraki who was a popular Tamil journalist.
Whoever planned and carried out the attack on Samarawickrama’s house either forgot that the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions are round the corner or simply did not care.
Needless to say, the writing is already on the wall for Sri Lanka at the 49th sessions of the UNHRC which start at the end of February. During the sessions Human Rights High Commissioner Michele Bachelet will give an oral update on Sri Lanka ‘s progress or non-progress with implementing the Resolutions which have been passed on Sri Lanka. With the human rights influencers lining up with their reports Sri Lanka will do well to get her firefighting gear together but continue with its multilateral engagement which is what members states and the multilateral fora that they belong to would also wish for.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), in its latest review of global trends in the World Report 2022 is critical of the government’s continued harassment, threats and surveillance of human rights defenders, including their families and the lawyers who represent them. The report points out how the government suppressed freedom of expression, including by detaining and interrogating journalists.
Meanwhile the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice (SLCPJ), a global non- partisan movement which has among its objectives to support the efforts of Sri Lankan civil society to promote a just and lasting peace, has made a series of recommendations to the UNHRC’s member states to uphold. The recommendations follow its review of Sri Lanka’s human rights situation last year. The SLCPJ urges member states to support the full implementation of Human Rights Council Resolution 46/1 and continue to raise concerns about Sri Lanka’s current trajectory towards authoritarian, militarised, and increasingly racist governance. It also recommends that the crackdown on civil society is denounced and to call on the government to immediately halt attempts to intimidate and harass activists, journalists, and victim groups, especially the families of the disappeared and those in detention. The SLCPJ also calls for support to be provided to activists who continue to speak out, including through diplomatic attendance at relevant court hearings and visits to those held in arbitrary detention, diplomatic efforts on behalf of those at risk, and visible engagement with civil society organisations, activists, and protesters to support their right to freedom of expression.
Among the SLCPJ’s other recommendations are the implementation of the Human Rights High Commissioner’s alternative accountability options by imposing targeted sanctions on “credibly alleged perpetrators of grave human rights violations and abuses, using the principles of extraterritorial or universal jurisdiction to “investigate and prosecute international crimes committed by all parties in Sri Lanka through judicial proceedings in domestic jurisdictions and the immediate review of all forms of bilateral engagement with Sri Lanka, including in the spheres of aid, trade, and security cooperation. To pursue this the SLCPJ suggests that states should halt engagement with Sri Lanka’s armed forces and police until there is meaningful security sector reform, including the removal of individuals credibly accused of human rights violations including enforced disappearances, sexual violence, and torture and ensure that Sri Lankan officials accused of grave human rights violations are deprived of political and material support.
The SLCPJ’s recommendations stem from what it describes as the ‘limited progress’ that was made following the consensual resolution of 2015 and the reversal of whatever progress that was made after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in November 2019.
Among the deteriorating trajectory that the SLCPJ points out is the militarization which has been taking place for instance with the appointment of miliary officers to civilian positions including the secretaries of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Industry. Questions are also being raised about the judiciaries’ independence, highlighting how Rajapakse allies have had their cases dropped and the downgrading of the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission from ‘A’ status due to concerns over its independence, activities and plurality of membership. The impunity in emblematic cases such as in the case of the Navy 11 where the attorney general dropped charges against the former navy commander, after which he was appointed the governor of the north western province is also among the issues which have been highlighted as being of concern. The other alarming trends are the surveillance and harassment of civil society activists and victim – survivor communities and the implementation of policies that adversely affect freedom of religion and speech. A case in point here is the policy to cremate Muslims who die of Covid. The marginalization of Tamils and Muslims including the appointment of the Bodu Bala Sena monk Galagodatthe Gnanasara to head the ‘One Country One Law’ taskforce, restrictions on memorialization, arbitrary detention and torture and sexual violence are also areas of concern that are being flagged. Shrinking media freedom and democratic space including the use of Covid as a cover to reduce civic space has also contributed to this downward slide in human rights. {SW}
Meanwhile, Amnesty International (AI) is the latest to add its voice to a growing chorus of calls for a repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) after the government’s proposed amendments of it fell short of expectations.
Echoing HRW’s critical review last week of the amendments, AI said ‘the amendments still do not bring the legislation in line with international human rights law and standards and are thereby wholly insufficient’. The human rights advocacy group described the amendments as ‘grossly inadequate’ and ‘is an attempt by the government of Sri Lanka to pacify both local and international calls for the repeal of the draconian PTA’.
Like HRW, Amnesty points out that the amendments do not change the vague, overly broad and ill-defined offence of ‘terrorism’ which has been abused to target minorities, critics and journalists and that it continues to allow confessions to be admissible evidence despite the routine torture of PTA detainees being documented and it being contrary to the protection guaranteed by the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT). Sri Lanka acceded to the CAT in 1994, while protection from torture is also enshrined in Article 11 of the constitution. The amendments still permit arbitrary arrests and prolonged detention, both of which are not subject to judicial scrutiny for their lawfulness even though Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which Sri Lanka acceded to in 1980 guarantees the right to liberty and security of the person. The amendments have also not placed any obligation on law enforcement authorities to inform a suspect at the time of arrest and the reasons for the arrest which are also a guarantee under the ICCPR. Similarly there is no provision to require anyone arrested or detained on a criminal charge to be brought promptly before a judge and to be entitled to trial within a reasonable time failing which the person should be released. It is also a guarantee under the ICCPR.
Sri Lankan civil society, trade unionists and journalists have challenged the amendments by petitioning the Supreme Court after the government tabled the Amendment Bill in parliament last week.
