HRW urges Sri Lankan authorities to respect human rights after emergency declaration

July 14 (EUROPA PRESS) –

The NGO Human Right Watch (HRW) has urged the security forces and the Sri Lankan authorities to respect the rights of the protesters after the declaration of a state of emergency on Wednesday due to the mobilizations.

The organization’s petition came hours after the country’s prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, was appointed interim president and described the demonstrations as a “fascist threat”, also declaring a state of emergency and a curfew in the west of the island.

“Emergency regulations cannot be used to ban all protests or allow security forces to use excessive force against protesters,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, HRW’s South Asia director.

Likewise, Ganguly recalled that the latest emergency declarations decreed in Sri Lanka raised “serious concerns” that the Army and the Police were going to use them to “abuse activists” and other people who join the government protests.

“The Armed Forces must act only under civilian control and all security forces must uphold basic principles on the use of force and in accordance with fundamental Human Rights,” the organization said.

HRW has pointed out that while international law allows governments to impose certain emergency measures in response to significant threats to the life of the nation, derogations from basic rights must be strictly necessary and proportionate to the emergency and be of the shortest duration possible.

He has also claimed that under Sri Lankan law, a state of emergency allows the president to override any law except the Constitution, restricting fundamental rights, including ordinary arrest procedures and the judicial sanction of detention, and the rights to liberty. of expression, meeting, association and movement.

During a state of emergency imposed between April 1 and 6, 2022, more than 600 people were arrested for defying the curfew, according to HRW.

“Sri Lanka’s political leaders should use the transfer of power to address the acute economic, political and human rights problems that have been the focus of months of peaceful protests,” Ganguly said.

HRW has also urged Sri Lanka’s international partners to insist that the new government address “entrenched problems of corruption, inequity and lack of accountability for past abuses by strengthening independent democratic institutions.”