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HRW: Emergency orders facilitate security force abuses
Lankan security forces and other authorities should respect the rights of protesters, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.The HRW statement said: Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, as acting president, declared the emergency as well as a curfew in the Western Province, which includes the capital, Colombo, after the departing president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled the country following months of an unprecedented political and economic crisis.
Protests against the government’s failure to address the crisis have continued with the president’s departure. Wickremesinghe called the protesters a “fascist threat” and said he had imposed a state of emergency and curfew to retake control of public buildings and “bring the situation back to normal.” The emergency regulations, which provide the security forces and other authorities special powers, have not been published. While international law permits the suspension of certain rights during an emergency, protections against torture, excessive use of force, and other fundamental rights can never be violated, Human Rights Watch said.
“Emergency regulations cannot be used to ban all protests or to allow the security forces to use excessive force against protesters,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Past emergencies in Sri Lanka raise grave concerns that the military and police will use the new declaration to abuse activists and others protesting against the government.”
Wickremesinghe announced that a committee consisting of the chief of defence staff, army, navy, and air force commanders, and the inspector general of police had been appointed to “restore order,” and given broad authority to act independently.The military should act only under civilian control and all security forces need to uphold basic principles on the use of force and in accordance with fundamental human rights, Human Rights Watch said.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa departed the country on a military aircraft to the Maldives, from where he is expected to continue to another destination. He has been implicated in grave international crimes during the civil war that ended in 2009, and since. By stepping down from the presidency, he will lose his domestic immunity from prosecution. He may also be prosecuted for alleged international crimes in other countries.
Armed military personnel and helicopters were deployed at several locations in Colombo on July 13, as protesters overran some offices, including the government broadcast station and the prime minister’s office, and there were clashes outside parliament. Police used teargas in some places to contain the protests. There were numerous injuries and at least one protester was killed. In recent weeks security personnel have used excessive force against protesters, as well as against people in line to buy fuel.
While international law allows governments to impose certain emergency measures in response to significant threats to the life of the nation, derogations – suspensions – of basic rights must be strictly necessary and proportionate to the emergency and be for the shortest duration possible. International human rights law forbids authorities from limiting some specific human rights, including the right to life and the right to be free from torture, including during national emergencies.
Emergency powers have previously been invoked in Sri Lanka to curtail fundamental rights. Under Sri Lankan law, a state of emergency allows the president to override any law except the constitution, restricting fundamental rights including ordinary procedures for arrests and judicial sanction for detention and rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association and movement.
“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 protest,” Ganguly said. “Sri Lanka’s international partners should insist that the new government tackle entrenched problems of corruption, inequity, and lack of accountability for past abuses by strengthening independent democratic institutions.”
It has been reported quoting family sources that veteran singer Mariazelle Goonetilleke has passed away this morning (10) at the age of 68
She had been receiving treatment at the Kalubowila Teaching Hospital.
The wife of retired Major General Suresh Sallay has lodged a further complaint with the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), alleging that her husband’s fundamental rights continue to be violated as Criminal Investigation Department (CID) officers prevent him from having confidential consultations with his lawyer while he is under detention at the National Hospital.
In a letter addressed to the HRCSL Chairman on Thursday, Mrs. S.B.M.S.B. Sallay has said the latest complaint was filed in relation to an earlier complaint concerning the detention and treatment of her husband.
Full text of the letter: I, Mrs. S.B.M.S.B. Sallay, respectfully write to lodge this further complaint in relation to my earlier complaint bearing reference H RC-HO-1 103-26, concerning the detention and treatment of my husband, Retired Major General Suresh Sallay.
I wish to bring to the attention of the Commission a further serious violation of his fundamental rights that occurred on 08 July 2026 during a consultation between my husband and his Attorney-at-Law, Mr. Asith Siriwardena, while my husband remains under detention and is receiving treatment at the National Hospital.
I am informed by his Counsel that he is presently permitted to consult with my husband only once a week for a period of approximately twenty minutes. During the consultation held on 08 July 2026, officers of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) stationed at the Cardiac Coronary Care Unit of the National Hospital informed Counsel that they had received instructions from higher authorities that my husband should not be permitted to meet with his
legal counsel in private. Consequently, the officers remained present throughout the consultation and refused to permit a confidential lawyer-client meeting.
This conduct constitutes a grave infringement of my husband’s fundamental right to communicate privately and confidentially with his legal counsel. Confidential communication between an accused or detainee and his lawyer is an indispensable safeguard of the right to legal representation, the right to prepare his defence, and the right to a fair trial. The denial of confidential legal consultations undermines these fundamental protections guaranteed under the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka and the applicable provisions governing persons detained under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
The confidentiality of communications between a lawyer and client is also a well-recognized principle under international human rights law and forms an essential safeguard against arbitrary detention, coercion, and unfair legal proceedings.
In view of the foregoing, I respectfully request the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka to urgently intervene and take all necessary steps within its statutory mandate to:
1. Ensure that my husband is afforded immediate and unrestricted confidential access to his legal counsel without the presence or supervision of law enforcement officers;
2. Inquire into the instructions allegedly issued by higher authorities requiring CID officers to remain present during lawyer-client consultations;
3. Direct the relevant authorities to cease any practice that interferes with confidential legal consultations; and
4. Take such further action as the Commission considers appropriate to safeguard my husband’s constitutional and human rights.
This complaint is made as a further complaint to Complaint No. H RC-HO-1103-26, and I respectfully request that it be placed on the same file and considered together with my previous complaints.
I respectfully seek the Commission’s urgent intervention in this matter.
The Supreme Court yesterday (9) upheld a Colombo Commercial High Court order directing former Minister Wimal Weerawansa to pay Rs. 1 million in damages to Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) General Secretary Tilvin Silva for violating intellectual property rights.
A three-member Supreme Court bench dismissed in its entirety an appeal filed by Weerawansa challenging the earlier Commercial High Court ruling.
The case was instituted by Silva, who alleged that Weerawansa had violated provisions of the Intellectual Property Act by publishing his book “Neththa Wenuwata Aththa” (“Truth Instead of Lies”), which contained the JVP’s political ideology and official party documents without authorisation.
The Supreme Court also affirmed the order restraining the publication and distribution of the book in its existing form. However, the court ruled that the book could be republished if the 60-page section identified as infringing intellectual property rights was removed.
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