Sri Lankans will be free of the sweeping emergency regulations that gave the country’s security forces broad powers to arrest and detain citizens. Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa made the announcement before parliament today, saying that he is “satisfied that extension of emergency is not required anymore.” 

Various emergency regulations have been enacted in Sri Lanka since the beginning of the country’s 26-year civil war. The latest set of laws was not fully repealed when the conflict ended two years ago, and have been roundly criticised by international human rights groups for enabling human rights abuses in the country. 

"To carry forward the day-to-day activities in a democratic way, I propose there is no need of emergency regulations anymore," President Rajapaksa said. In his speach, he did not specify precisely when the laws would be lifted, or if any would remain in effect. 

Human rights violations

The South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, Meenakshi Ganguly, says her organization doesn’t dispute any government’s right to enact laws to address security threats, but sees the Sri Lankan as enabling human rights infringements. 

In a 2009 report, the independent International Commission of Jurists characterised the 30 years of emergency regulations as “a series of overlapping, vague and overbroad emergency laws that fail to meet basic human rights and criminal justice safeguards, and in some cases grant security forces immunity from prosecution.”

Now what?

Ganguly says it will take more that lifting the laws to end what she calls the culture of impunity in Sri Lanka. “The government has to change its mindset and make sure that people responsible [for crimes] are properly prosecuted. If they strongly condemn human rights violations and indicate that such cases will be prosecuted, it will deter people from abusive behaviour.”

Rights groups have alleged that the emergency laws led to thousands of Sri Lankans being detained without formal charges or trials. “The question now is what happens to them,” Ganguly says.  

Sri Lanka has come under increasing international scrutiny in recent months over war crimes allegedly committed by both sides during the civil war. You can read more about those allegations here.