Features
A long way still to go to retain GSP Plus
By Jehan Perera
In appointing the new Right to Information commissioners to five-year terms, the government has chosen persons with credibility within human rights organisations. Two, in particular, are worthy of mention. Kishali Pinto Jayawardena, who was part of the previous Commission, has been a foremost and fearless critic of corrupt and undemocratic governance that spans many governments, as a newspaper columnist and lawyer. Jagath Liyanaarachchi, also a lawyer, has been a source of strength to civil society as a political commentator and resource person at training programmes on issues of human rights, reconciliation and good governance. Their appointment to the Right to Information Commission will ensure that the positive role of the RTI Commission will continue.
In another less publicised development, the release on bail of 10 persons, who had been arrested and kept in detention for over seven months, was also an indication of a positive shift of approach. They had been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) for having commemorate their loved ones who had died in the war on May 18, the anniversary of the end of the war. May 18 is the date that the Tamil people of the Northern and Eastern provinces consider a day of remembrance while May 19 is the day that the government celebrates as the day the war was won. The action for which they had been arrested was to have gathered on the beach by themselves, light a lamp and remember their loved ones in a context in which the police had obtained court orders against public commemoration under public nuisance and Covid-related crowding ban.
One of the 10 posted the video of their commemoration on their Facebook page which came to the attention of the security forces. The PTA permits the security forces to arrest persons and detain them if there is any suspicion. Human rights advocates have pointed out that the PTA does not contain a definition of terrorism and is a human rights deficient law that does not adhere to basic human rights standards enshrined in international conventions. Instead, the offences stipulated are those found in other laws, such as the Penal Code, to which the PTA makes reference. Hence, the decision as to whether the PTA would apply in a certain instance is a subjective decision that can be shaped by personal prejudice and bias, rather than objective standards.
JUDICIAL DECISION
Bringing the PTA into line with international standards is one of the EU Parliament’s requirements for a continuation of the GSP Plus tariff concession. The GSP Plus was withdrawn once before in 2010 on the grounds that Sri Lanka failed to meet its human rights commitments and this cost the country tremendously in terms of job losses, factory shutdowns and diminished foreign currency earnings. The GSP Plus was restored in 2017 following government pledges to meet its human rights obligations in terms of 26 international covenants that the country has signed, and with the reform of the PTA as one major promise. These pledges were incorporated into the UN Human Rights Council resolution of 2015 that the then Sri Lankan government also co-sponsored.
The government appears to be taking the possible loss of GSP Plus seriously and is in the process of revising the PTA. Last month a committee of senior government officials drawn from different ministries and the security forces and headed by Defense Secretary General Kamal Gunaratne handed over a confidential report on the PTA and the options for amending it to President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. This report is being considered by a committee of government ministers headed by Foreign Minister Prof G L Peiris. On November 27, this ministerial committee invited a group of civil society members to discuss the revisions to the PTA that the government hopes to bring.
They made the point that arbitrary arrests need to be ended and that all actions with regard to detention needed to be taken by the judiciary rather than by executive or administrative authorities. The example of the seven month long detention of the Batticaloa 10 was brought to the discussion as one of the civil society members present on the occasion was a lawyer who had appeared in their case.
The problem with laws that do not give to the judiciary the power to detain or not to detain (as decided by Justice Mark Fernando in the Supreme Court case of Pathmanathan) is that these laws can be abused by those who operate under political or administrative direction. Those who work on PTA cases have noted that there is a pattern to the arrests. If a person shows ability as a community leader, and can become a political rival to the ruling politicians or aspirants to political power, they are liable to be arrested under a shallow pretext and put into remand prison. This is especially the case in the North and East where the military is present in large numbers on the grounds that they need to be eternally vigilant to prevent another terrorist uprising. In some cases the detention order is served for clicking the “like” button on Facebook for a site that is seen as subversive.
UNPREDICTABLE ELEMENT
Following the decision of the Attorney General’s Department to permit the bailing out of the Batticaloa detainees, there is optimism that other PTA detainees, who are incarcerated on suspicion but against whom there are no charges, will also be able to obtain bail and go back to their homes and loved ones. The lawyer who had appeared in the case said that relatives of other prisoners were calling him asking if they could expect their loved ones to be bailed out.
During the meeting with the government ministers, the civil society members were assured that the changes to the PTA that had been proposed were a result of consensus between the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Defence and the Attorney General’s Department, and that these changes are not conceived as one-off ones, but as a part of a continuum, there being other changes contemplated that will be agreed on later.
Not only those who are detained under the PTA, but civil society organisations and their members continue to complain that they live under tension as they are being constantly questioned by the security forces and asked to provide them with their reports. While the problem of surveillance is severe in the North and East, there is also an unpredictable element in civil society activities in other parts of the country. Sometimes there is a crackdown which is inexplicable and shows the potential for the use of arbitrary power. On December 10, which is International Human Rights Day, the Human Rights Organisation of Kandy, headed by Fr Nandana Manatunga was issued a court order obtained by the police to prevent him from conducting an event to celebrate International Human Rights Day.
Fr Manatunga has won international awards for the work he has done, especially for prisoners over many decades. On this occasion the theme of the event his organisation was planning was “Ensure the Prisoners their Dignity and Rights to Human Conditions.”
One part of the programme was to give tokens of appreciation to family members of prisoners, from different ethnic and religious groups and from different parts of the country, who had seen their loved ones incarcerated for long periods and having to fend for themselves. However, due to the court order, this event could not be held. The order obtained by the police prohibited the event on the grounds it may cause disunity amongst different ethnic groups. This is an indication of how even the regular law can be used to stifle the freedom of association and freedom of expression, which are basic human rights. As an example, commemoration was defined by different courts differently in the North this year some allowing with conditions and others with refusal.
The Human Rights Organisation of Kandy reports that surveillance and harassment became more intense in 2021, when two staff members were summoned for questioning in Colombo by the Counter Terrorist Investigation Department (CTID) on two separate occasions. The government’s efforts to show commitment towards human rights needs to become more institutionalised and less ad hoc or dependent on personal goodwill. This will improve the prospects to retain GSP Plus.
Eight babies have been born in the UK using genetic material from three people to prevent devastating and often fatal conditions, doctors say.
The method, pioneered by UK scientists, combines the egg and sperm from a mum and dad with a second egg from a donor woman.
The technique has been legal here for a decade but we now have the first proof it is leading to children born free of incurable mitochondrial disease.
These conditions are normally passed from mother to child, starving the body of energy.
This can cause severe disability and some babies die within days of being born. Couples know they are at risk if previous children, family members or the mother has been affected.
Children born through the three-person technique inherit most of their DNA, their genetic blueprint, from their parents, but also get a tiny amount, about 0.1%, from the second woman. This is a change that is passed down the generations.
None of the families who have been through the process are speaking publicly to protect their privacy, but have issued anonymous statements through the Newcastle Fertility Centre where the procedures took place.
“After years of uncertainty this treatment gave us hope – and then it gave us our baby,” said the mother of a baby girl. “We look at them now, full of life and possibility, and we’re overwhelmed with gratitude.”
The mother of a baby boy added: “Thanks to this incredible advancement and the support we received, our little family is complete. “The emotional burden of mitochondrial disease has been lifted, and in its place is hope, joy, and deep gratitude.”
Mitochondria are tiny structures inside nearly every one of our cells. They are the reason we breathe as they use oxygen to convert food into the form of energy our bodies use as fuel.
Defective mitochondria can leave the body with insufficient energy to keep the heart beating as well as causing brain damage, seizures, blindness, muscle weakness and organ failure.
About one in 5,000 babies are born with mitochondrial disease. The team in Newcastle anticipate there is demand for 20 to 30 babies born through the three-person method each year.
Some parents have faced the agony of having multiple children die from these diseases.
Mitochondria are passed down only from mother to child. So this pioneering fertility technique uses both parents and a woman who donates her healthy mitochondria.
The science was developed more than a decade ago at Newcastle University and the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and a specialist service opened within the NHS in 2017.
There was a case of epilepsy, which cleared up by itself and one child has an abnormal heart rhythm which is being successfully treated.
These are not thought to be connected to defective mitochondria. It is not known whether this is part of the known risks of IVF, something specific to the three-person method or something that has been detected only because the health of all babies born through this technique is monitored intensely.
Another key question hanging over the approach has been whether defective mitochondria would be transferred into the healthy embryo and what the consequences could be.
The results show that in five cases the diseased mitochondria were undetectable. In the other three, between 5% and 20% of mitochondria were defective in blood and urine samples.
This is below the 80% level thought to cause disease. It will take further work to understand why this occurred and if it can be prevented.
Prof Mary Herbert, from Newcastle University and Monash University, said: “The findings give grounds for optimism. However, research to better understand the limitations of mitochondrial donation technologies, will be essential to further improve treatment outcomes.”
The breakthrough gives hope to the Kitto family.
Kat’s youngest daughter Poppy, 14, has the disease. Her eldest Lily, 16, may pass it onto her children.
Poppy is in a wheelchair, is non-verbal and is fed through a tube.
“It’s impacted a huge part of her life,” says Kat, “we have a lovely time as she is, but there are the moments where you realize how devastating mitochondrial disease is”.
Despite decades of work there is still no cure for mitochondrial disease, but the chance to prevent it being passed on gives hope to Lily.
“It’s the future generations like myself, or my children, or my cousins, who can have that outlook of a normal life,” she says.
The UK not only developed the science of three-person babies, but it also became the first country in the world to introduce laws to allow their creation after a vote in Parliament in 2015.
There was controversy as mitochondria have DNA of their own, which controls how they function.
It means the children have inherited DNA from their parents and around 0.1% from the donor woman.
Any girls born through this technique would pass this onto their own children, so it is a permanent alteration of human genetic inheritance.
This was a step too far for some when the technology was debated, raising fears it would open the doors to genetically-modified “designer” babies.
Prof Sir Doug Turnbull, from Newcastle University, told me: “I think this is the only place in the world this could have happened, there’s been first class science to get us to where we are, there been legislation to allow it to move into clinical treatment, the NHS to help support it and now we’ve got eight children that seem to free of mitochondrial disease, what a wonderful result.”
Liz Curtis, the founder of the Lily Foundation charity said: “After years of waiting, we now know that eight babies have been born using this technique, all showing no signs of mito.
“For many affected families, it’s the first real hope of breaking the cycle of this inherited condition.”
[BBC]
Fast-breaking developments in US-Russia relations and US-Ukraine ties could very well be pointing to the wasting war in the Ukraine theatre currently approaching a dangerous tipping point. The US has reached the crucial decision to equip Ukraine with the necessary lethal arms to counter Russia’s ongoing missile and drone strikes on it and if implemented could mark a qualitatively new phase in the conflict between the West and Russia in Ukraine, which could have serious implications for regional and even world peace.
‘We want to make sure Ukraine can do what it wants to do, US President Donald Trump is quoted as saying following a recent meeting he had with NATO chief Mark Rutte in Washington, subsequent to indicating that the US will be sending ‘top of the line weapons’ to Ukraine through NATO countries. Such weaponry could include Patriot air defence systems which are generally seen as an effective answer in particular to Russia’s air strikes on Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is on record that he had thanked the US President for his ‘willingness to support Ukraine and to continue working together to stop the killings and establish a lasting and just peace.’
Going ahead, the West would need to bear in mind that the supplying of exceptionally lethal arms to the Ukraine through its mediation could be seen by the Putin regime as hostile acts directed at the Russian state. That is, the West would be considered as involving itself physically in the ongoing hostilities between Russia and the Ukraine, necessitating the West, and more specifically NATO countries, to brace for Russian military strikes on them. Needless to say, such an eventuality would bode ill for international stability and peace.
Accordingly the West would need to assess very finely the consequences of its decisions on the Ukraine front. While the US President’s recent statements on these questions could be seen by some as mere rhetoric Trump is also on record as having indicated that his patience is wearing thin with Putin over the central issue of bringing peace to the Ukraine.
Inasmuch as Trump needs to trod gingerly going ahead so must Putin. In the event of full scale hostilities breaking out between the East and West in the Eastern European theatre no camp would stand to gain; this ought to be plain to the main antagonists, since they are evenly matched in terms of military capability. Even if the conflict in the Ukraine stagnates at a proxy stage, the costs for both sides would be staggering in human and material terms. Russia would need to recollect Afghanistan and the US would need to take itself back to the numerous proxy wars it fought in the then Third World.
However, although there are great uncertainties and perils for the world in the event of the current proxy war in the Ukraine degenerating into a more frontal East-West military confrontation in Europe, President Trump could be considered as holding the ‘Trump card’ to force a negotiated end to the present crisis.
This ‘Trump card’ takes the form of the economic strife which may descend upon the world in the event of the Trump administration going fully ahead with its ‘reciprocal tariff’ based trade wars with the majority of countries.
The US under President Trump may not be the most popular major power but it continues to be critical to the world’s current economic health. However much unpalatable it may be, the truth is that the economic vibrancy and prosperity of the US are key to many a country’s material survival. This is on account of the multiple economic linkages between the US and the rest of the world. The weaker the economy the greater is its dependence on the US and its largesse. For example, Sri Lanka knows this only too well.
The Trump administration is on record that it would be imposing what are described as ‘secondary tariffs’ on those countries whose economic operations are even indirectly benefiting Russia and if implemented could bring about crippling economic hardships for quite a few countries.
Major economic powers, China and India, are fully aware of these consequences. This is the reason why they would prefer not to undermine current economic arrangements between them and the US and between the latter and the rest of the world.
The above positions should not be misunderstood to mean that the rest of the world should be in a subservient relationship with the US. There is no question of the US exercising some sort of suzerainty over the rest of the world. This is not the case but in international relations the primacy of economics over politics may need to be recognized; economic realism needs be a cornerstone of foreign policy.
It would be quite some time before the BRICS grouping reaches the commanding heights of the world economy. Right now, it would be self-defeating, given the US’ continued economic power, for the South in particular to gloss over the might of the West and depend lopsidedly on the BRICS powers for its entire economic sustenance and survival. Indeed, a Non-aligned foreign policy remains best for the South.
It does not follow from the above considerations that the West could continue to turn a blind eye to the dangers posed to it and the world from the Ukraine conflict. Immense caution and foresight would need to go into its moves to arm Ukraine with its more sophisticated and exceptionally lethal weaponry. A cornered enemy in the battlefield, suffering overwhelming losses, cannot be expected to be continually discreet. With its patience relentlessly wearing thin it could unleash its Weapons of Mass Destruction, thus driving the world to the brink of destruction.
Accordingly, it is hoped that better counsel would prevail over all concerned and that differences would be resolved at the negotiating table. May be harsh economic realities would come to dictate terms and propel the quarters concerned to give cool rationality rather than the avarice born of self-aggrandizement a chance in their dealings with each other.
I’m sure the whole of Sri Lanka is eagerly looking forward to the arrival of Bollywood heartthrob Shah Rukh Khan, due in Colombo, next month, for the grand opening of the City of Dreams.
What makes Shah Rukh Khan standout is not only his acting prowess but also his looks.
At 59-plus, he looks absolutely great … or, let’s say, simply awesome.
Generally, people in their late fifties, or even in their mid-fifties, look frail, and some can’t even walk steadily.
So, what is Shah Rukh Khan’s secret to looking young, and, remember, he will be hitting 60 on 2nd November, 2025!
Yes, diet, is given top priority where Shah Rukh Khan is concerned.
While many of us need around four meals a day, Shah Rukh focuses on two main meals a day – lunch and dinner – and avoids snacking or elaborate dishes.
His meals often include sprouts, grilled chicken, broccoli, and sometimes dhal. And don’t we all love dhal!
While he enjoys sharing meals with others when he’s with family or travelling, even if it means indulging in richer dishes, like biryani or parathas, his core diet remains consistent, he says.
Wonder what would be his menu during his very short stay in Sri Lanka! Perhaps traditional Indian foods like tandoori chicken and mutton biriyani, roti, parathas, food cooked with ghee! He also likes the drink lassi, I’m told.
Perhaps, we should also ask him to check out some of our dishes, as well … a good rice and curry menu, with dhal!
It isn’t diet alone that has given Shah Rukh his young look but, he says, exercise, too, has played an important part, especially where his physique is concerned.
Young Shah Rukh Khan in the early ‘90s
Shah Rukh refers to his fitness journey during the pandemic, saying during the pandemic he decided to work hard on his body.
He focused on building a strong physique, and, by exercising consistently, he achieved a body he is proud of today.
Another factor responsible for his leaner, healthier body, and a sharper appearance, is that he has completely quit smoking
This major lifestyle change has also helped him maintain a leaner, healthier body, and a sharper appearance, he says.
Strangely, his sleep routine is totally different to what experts say. We are told that we need between seven and nine hours of sleep per night for optimal health.
Shah Rukh admits he has an unusual sleep schedule and this generally happens when he has a busy shooting schedule.
He usually goes to bed around 5.00 am and sleeps for about four–five hours. Even though it’s not ideal, he manages it around his busy shooting schedule.
In fact, Shah Rukh is a night person and usually loves working in the night. He also loves night shoots. He had said, “I usually head to bed around 5.00 am. On shooting days, I wake up by 9 or 10 in the morning. After coming back home late at night — sometimes around 2.00 am — I take a shower and get a workout in before I finally sleep.”
On the work front, he will be seen next in the movie ‘King’, due for a grand release in 2026.
Shah Rukh Khan continues to inspire millions with his commitment to fitness and I hope Sri Lankans will take a cue from this Bollywood heartthrob and maintain a leaner, healthier body.
President opens Wax Museum at the historic Ehelepola Walawwa in Kandy
Police SI’s who demanded free service at a SPA interdicted
Dozens dead, others missing in huge fire at hypermarket in Iraq’s Kut
Babies made using three people’s DNA are born free of hereditary disease
Indictments served on former Minister Keheliya Rambukwella and family
Deepti digs deep to deliver India’s four-wicket win
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
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