The government’s proposed amendments to the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) will do little to bring it in line with international human rights obligations because they replicate or do not change the status of existing provisions.
In a critical assessment of the PTA, watchdog Human Rights Watch explained how ‘ afteryears of domestic and international criticism of the law, the Sri Lankan government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on January 27, 2022, published a bill to amend the Act’.
The assessment titled ‘In a legal black hole – Sri Lanka’s failure to reform the Prevention of Terrorism Act – points out that the proposed amendments leave the most often abused provisions of the law intact, and if enacted, will do little to make the PTA compliant.
There are five “necessary prerequisites” to comply with international human rights standards which were described by seven United Nations special rapporteurs in December 2021.
While the revisions could reduce some abuses such as a shortening of the time from 18 to 12 months that a suspect can be held without being produced in court, the revisions still violate the prohibition against arbitrary detention.
Among other crucial provisions which have not changed are the sweeping powers the law gives to authorities to charge people with speech-related offenses and the status of confessions to the police which are admissible under the PTA even though they are inadmissible under other Sri Lankan law.
The bill has also failed to define what is meant by terrorism.
The PTA, which was enacted in 1979 in oneday, has come in for severe criticism because it allows the prolonged and arbitrary detention of a suspect for up to 18 months without production in court and arrests without a warrant for unspecified unlawful activities. The assessment quotes a defence lawyer as saying that ‘during the 18– month period the detainee is at the mercy of the security agency which is detaining you’. According to HRW theadmissibility of confessions to the police has led the police to routinely use torture and other ill-treatment to extract confessions from PTA prisoners.
The amendments follow the government’s pledges in January 2021 when it said it will review the PTA. It was a key condition for Sri Lanka to have tariff– free trading access to the European Union.
To read the full assessment click on: SRI LANKA 2022
