Human Rights and emergency: under the Public Security Ordinance, the president is empowered to bypass the normal legislative process to restrict basic rights guaranteed under the constitution for so-called national security purposes...

Although the implementation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act of 1979, which violates many provisions of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, has been suspended as a part of the confidence building measures of the peace process with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, thousands of Tamils continue to be detained under the PTA. After the emergency lapsed...all those who were detained under the Emergency Regulations were brought under the PTA. Under the PTA, the opinion of the attorney general and the defence minister on arrest, detention and granting of bail is final and cannot be questioned before any court and tribunal...

The Sri Lankan president issued orders to release 3,670 prisoners in the run-up to the 2002 and 2003 independence day celebrations. Not a single detainee under the PTA was released...

There has been considerable public pressure to repeal the PTA. The government has been contemplating repeal of the PTA. However, before such measures are taken, the government has sought to bring in the draconian provisions of the PTA through the backdoor, under the Prevention of Organized Crimes Bill, 2003. The government has been seeking to incorporate provisions of the PTA, an emergency law, into the normal criminal justice system. President Chandrika Kumaratunga, while commenting on the POC, stated, “The proposed legislation seeks to significantly dilute procedural due process and the rights of the accused to a fair trail.”

Right to life: notwithstanding the assertion of the Sri Lankan government... that only three crimes — the offences of murder, treason and drug trafficking, to be determined by the judiciary on a case-by-case basis — attract the death penalty under the Sri Lankan Penal Code, arbitrary deprivation of life by law enforcement personnel is rampant and perpetrated with impunity. According to the All Island Commissions of Inquiry of 2000, 27,200 persons have disappeared during 1988-90 alone. About 4,000 suspected individual perpetrators were identified out of whom about 500 perpetrators have been indicted. But these have resulted in very few convictions in the courts. In addition, the security forces are involved in arbitrary deprivation of the right to life through indiscriminate killings and custodial deaths.

Torture...is rampant in Sri Lanka and...the victims include ex-soldiers, criminal investigation department officers and, not to forget, the minority Tamils. No perpetrators of torture have so far been convicted in a criminal court, despite the reported filing of some cases. It clearly shows that Act No 22 passed by the Sri Lankan parliament in 1994 , embodying the provisions of the International Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, has failed to eradicate torture...

Arbitrary arrest and detention: article 13(1) of the Sri Lankan constitution provides that, “No person shall be arrested except according to the procedure laid down by the law. Any person arrested shall be informed of the reason of his arrest.” “Procedure laid down by the law” is not due process of law...Parliament is empowered to lay down procedures, which do not meet due process of law. Article 6 (1) of the PTA, which provides for arbitrary arrest and detention for an indefinite period, is a clear example.