Laws being drafted to address ethno-religious grievances: SL tells UNHRC

By Dharisha Bastians

The Justice Ministry is drafting amendments to legislation that will address ethno-religious grievances, especially for minority communities, the Sri Lanka Delegation told the UNHRC yesterday.

Addressing the Council’s 22nd Session during the clustered interactive debate with the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the delegation said that Sri Lanka was a multi-ethnic, multi-religious community including those of the Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Islamic faiths.

“Freedom of religion, including the freedom to have or to adopt a religion of choice for every person is enshrined in Article 10 of Sri Lanka’s Constitution,” the Delegation said.

The undertaking came even as Muslim politician and Leader of the Muslim Tamil National Alliance, Azath Sally wrote to UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay yesterday, charging that the stage was being set in Sri Lanka for another holocaust, this time against the Muslim community.

In his letter to the UN Chief, Sally said they failed to understand the failure of the government of Sri Lanka in arresting the current trend. “What is more disturbing is that radical members of the Buddhist clergy are allowed to take the law into their hands ,with the enforcers of the law watching from the sidelines, and the publicity given to these events by organs of the state,” the letter said.

It said that the National Action Plan to implement the LLRC recommendations has made provision to address grievances of citizens, in particular minorities and particularly those based on ethnicity and religion.

This process, through the introduction of measures or amendments to laws would strengthen citizens’ rights and grievance mechanisms – this is being implemented by the Ministry of Justice, the Attorney General’s Department and the Presidential Secretariat,” the delegation said.