Anti-Terrorism Bill to be tabled in Parliament this month?

The new Anti-Terrorism Bill will be presented to the Parliament this month, Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena says.

The Premier noted that the Bill would be tabled in the parliament, following discussions with all political parties.

This Bill seeks to abolish the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which has come under heavy criticism for the arbitrary arrests and detentions made pursuant to its provisions, and to introduce the Anti-Terrorism Act.

The PTA came into effect in 1979 as a temporary measure during the conflict with the separatist group LTTE and it was later made permanent in 1982.

Since its enactment, the PTA was heavily criticized, with both local international organizations including the United Nations, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International repeatedly urging the Sri Lankan authorities to do away with the Act, which they deemed a ‘legal black hole’ and referred to as a ‘draconian’ piece of legislation.

Hence, the new Anti-Terrorism Bill was later brought forth to replace the controversial PTA, however, many rights advocates including the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) have raised deep concerns about the new Bill.

They stress that the Bill requires serious attention, especially when authorities have used security laws to target minorities, critics and protesters, entrenching a culture of torture and impunity in Sri Lanka.

Although the Bill has defeated certain discrepancies of the PTA, they stated that the Bill still carries problematic aspects which outweighed the positives.

The rights advocates have pointed out that one improvement in the Bill is that confessions made by suspects in detention to a police officer are no longer admissible in evidence – a general principle in the ordinary law, for which an exception was made in the PTA.

However, concerns have been raised about placing the power to make detention orders in the hands of a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) – a power which, under the PTA, is held by the Defence Minister. Further, rights advocates have pointed out that allowing detention orders to be made for up to 3 months, similar to that of the PTA, is a grave concern.

They have appealed to the Sri Lankan authorities not to replace the PTA with an “even worse piece of legislation”.