HRCSL proposes guidelines when implementing emergency law

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka has proposed a set of guidelines to follow when implementing the emergency regulations.

In a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena, the Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Dr. Deepika Udagama says the Commission does not dispute that emergency regulations are needed at a time like this in order to provide protection to the public and to restore normalcy.

Similarly, the Commission believes that if the regulations are implemented by relevant officers in a manner that safeguards everyone?s rights and with cultural and religious sensitivity, security measures can be carried out successfully with the cooperation of every community.

Immediately after the state of emergency was lifted in 2011, regulations were adopted under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.

“By letter dated 2016.05.18 we presented to your Excellency a series of suggested guidelines to be followed when implementing those regulations (Attachment 01 ? i). We are pleased to recall that you issued those guidelines as Presidential Guidelines, with some edits, to the relevant security authorities,” HRCSL said.

HRCSL noted that since those guidelines are directly applicable to the present Emergency Regulations as well, it would be of great assistance to further strengthen the security measures if the President could reissue those guidelines as applicable to the current Emergency Regulations.

In addition to those guidelines HRCSL also sent suggested guidelines to be followed during search operations. (Colombo Gazette)?

[gview file=”https://colombogazettecom.wpcomstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Guidelines-for-Implementing-the-Emergency-Regulations-English.pdf”%5D