The Human Right Watch (HRW) NGO has urged Sri Lankan security forces and authorities to respect the rights of protesters following the declaration of a state of emergency on Wednesday in connection with the demonstrations.
The organization’s call came hours after the country’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was appointed interim president and called the demonstrations a “fascist threat” and declared a state of emergency and curfew in the west of the island.
“Emergency rules cannot be used to ban all protests or allow security forces to use excessive force against demonstrators,” HRW South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly has warned.
Ganguly also recalled that the latest emergency declarations decreed in Sri Lanka raised “serious concerns” that the army and police would use them to “abuse activists” and others who join the government’s 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 noted 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 possible duration.
It has also stated 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 judicial sanction for detention and the rights to freedom of speech, assembly, association and movement.
During a state of emergency imposed between April 1 and April 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 has said.
HRW also urged Sri Lanka’s international partners to insist that the new government address “entrenched problems of corruption, inequality and lack of accountability for past abuses by strengthening independent democratic institutions.”