The updated Anti-Terrorism Bill and the Online Safety Bill are two bills that are now being debated in the Sri Lankan Parliament, and both have drawn the serious attention of the UN Human Rights Office.
The UN Human Rights Office stated in a statement that the laws violate international human rights law by giving the government a wide range of expanding powers and the ability to impose restrictions on human rights.
The Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has long raised concerns for the UN human rights procedures, will be replaced with the Anti-Terrorism Bill. Even though the death sentence has been eliminated as a possible punishment, there are still significant concerns regarding the scope and discriminatory impact of numerous clauses in the updated draught, notwithstanding some constructive amendments.
It was noted that restrictions on the freedoms of speech and assembly are quite likely to fall short of the standards of necessity and proportionality.
The UN Human Rights Office additionally stated that the Bill continues to give the police and the military broad authority to stop, question, and search, as well as to make arrests and hold persons without proper judicial review.
Curfews, restriction orders and the identification of banned areas are still problems, and they all raise questions about the extent of the executive’s power without enough checks and balances, the report stated.
The UN Human Rights Office stated that it believes the Online Safety Bill will significantly regulate and restrict online speech, including that of the general public, and will allow authorities complete freedom to categorise and ban viewpoints they disagree with as “false statements.”
Many of the Bill’s sections have ambiguous definitions of terms and offences that could be interpreted arbitrarily and subjectively. This could potentially make nearly all forms of acceptable expression illegal, which would have a chilling effect on free speech.
In order to bring the draught laws fully into accordance with Sri Lanka’s duties under international human rights law, the UN Human Rights Office has encouraged the government to engage in more meaningful engagement with civil society and UN independent experts.
