Human Rights Day (December 10th) gives us an opportunity to reflect on the successes and more importantly, the failures in addressing human rights-related issues in Sri Lanka, and to hopefully use this evaluation as a guideline for the years ahead.
This is not an exhaustive overview but provides an insight into issues that have been addressed over the course of 2016 and how much still needs to be done towards realising greater promotion of human rights for all Sri Lankan citizens.
The passage of legislation for the establishment of the Office of Missing Persons, the Right to Information Act, the Counter-terrorism Act that is said to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act, Militarisation of land in the North and East, better rights for plantation sector workers, displacement as a result of urban development in Colombo, language rights, hate speech, the abuse of power by law enforcement authorities, the need for constitutional reform – we take these issues into consideration and provide a non-exhaustive review of how Sri Lanka has fared in terms of human rights across the last year.
The article can be accessed here and is also embedded below.
