• Justice Minister formulating National Security Bill
• TNA to re-launch ‘Repeal PTA’ islandwide campaign

The Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act, No. 48 of 1979 as amended (PTA) will be replaced with the National Security Act with “less stringent conditions”, the Government said yesterday (23). “The PTA, which has been in place since 1979, will be changed to the National Security Act, with less stringent conditions,” Cabinet Spokesman Dr. Bandula Gunawardana said while addressing the weekly Cabinet press briefing held to announce its decisions, yesterday (23). He said that Minister of Justice, Prisons Affairs, and Constitutional Reforms Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe PC had informed Cabinet this week that he is formulating this new Bill at the moment. Human rights defenders in Sri Lanka and in the international community have been calling for the repeal of the PTA, which is widely regarded as draconian in nature. Last year, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Government of Sri Lanka to repeal the PTA and the European Commission to consider the temporary withdrawal of the Generalised Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+) trade concession from Sri Lanka. In March, 2022, the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) called for an immediate moratorium on the use of the said anti-terror law. In his address to the UNHRC in June, 2022, then-Minister of Foreign Affairs Prof. G.L. Peiris said that Inspector General of Police Chandana D. Wickramaratne had instructed a de facto moratorium on arrests being made under the PTA, and to use the PTA only in instances of “extreme necessity”. Earlier this year, the PTA (Amendment) Act was passed in Parliament. However, the Opposition and many civil and human rights activists said that the amendments contained in it were just an attempt to “pull wool over the eyes of the people”, as they provided no proper change to the draconian anti-terror law in the country. The main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegeya (SJB), has stated that the PTA must be repealed and replaced with a law that adheres to international standards while balancing national security needs, and individual liberty rights. The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Frontline Socialist Party too have called for the repeal of the PTA. The TNA is engaged in a continuous islandwide campaign, which began earlier this year, to collect signatures calling for the repeal of the PTA. TNA Spokesman MP M.A. Sumanthiran PC posted on Twitter yesterday: “This ‘Repeal PTA’ campaign is still on. When questioned at that time as to the end date, I said ‘when it is repealed’. We suspended the town to town campaign due to the fuel crisis but are continuing it in the villages. A reawakening campaign will be launched islandwide shortly.”