To share its observations and recommendations HRCSL writes to President seeking revised Anti-Terrorism Bill

• The HRCSL has written to President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday seeking a copy of the bill, which is a revised version of the bill that was previously gazetted on March 17  

By Kurulu Koojana Kariyakarawana  

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) is mulling to share its observations and recommendations to the revised Anti-Terrorism Bill, which had been approved by the Cabinet recently.  The HRCSL has written to President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Tuesday seeking a copy of the bill, which is a revised version of the bill that was previously gazetted on March 17 this year.   

Issuing a statement the HRCSL said that they had shared their observations and recommendations to the previous version of the bill and are looking forward to do the same for the revised version of the bill.  

The commission has stated in order to fulfill its mandate to ‘advise and assist the government in formulating legislation, in furtherance of the promotion and protection of the fundamental rights’, under the provisions of section 10(C) of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka Act No.21 of 1996, it is required to receive the revised bill.  

The HRCSL had also shared its observations and recommendations of the previously gazetted Anti-Terrorism bill, on the aspects of judicial safeguards, definition of terrorism, long term detention without trial, denial of bail and expansion of police powers.