{"id":121161,"date":"2021-12-13T19:09:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-14T02:09:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=121161"},"modified":"2021-12-13T19:09:56","modified_gmt":"2021-12-14T02:09:56","slug":"release-of-10-pta-detainees-on-bail-must-become-part-of-process-of-positive-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/12\/13\/release-of-10-pta-detainees-on-bail-must-become-part-of-process-of-positive-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Release of 10 PTA detainees on bail must become part of process of positive change"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

In recent days, the\ngovernment has sent mixed signals with regard to improving the human rights\nsituation in the country.  On December 10, on which day International\nHuman Rights Day is celebrated, a civil society organisation in Kandy, the\nHuman Rights Organisation headed by Fr Nandana Manatunga was issued a court\norder obtained by the police to block it from organising a human rights event\non the theme Ensure the Prisoners their Dignity and Rights to Human\nConditions.\u201d  A similar event in Puttalam organised by an inter-religious\ngroup was subjected to surveillance by persons believed to be from military\nintelligence in civvies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, on\nNovember 27, the Ministerial Subcommittee to amend the PTA chaired by Foreign\nMinister Prof G L Peiris outlined proposed amendments to the PTA in a discussion\nwith members of the Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus (SLCC).   We\nconsider our meetings with the government to be part of a process of necessary\nengagement between the government and civil society in general where issues\ncould be highlighted and government members would give serious hearing and\nattention beyond partisan defence and inaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When SLCC met with the\nministerial subcommittee, a case involving ten persons arrested under the PTA\nwas highlighted by us as an example of unfair detention and remand. One of the\ndraconian features of the PTA is the power it gives to the police to arrest\npeople on suspicion and to hold them in prison custody without bail until the\nconclusion of the trial.  This can extend to several years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are pleased that on\nDecember 8, the 10 persons who were being legally represented in the court by\none of our members were granted bail after 7 months in remand.  This was\nat the Magistrate\u2019s Court Valaichchenai on the instructions and recommendation\nof the Attorney General\u2019s office.  As we had taken this case as an example\nduring our discussion, the release of the detainees from remand may be a\ncoincidence or consequence of SLCC\u2019s discussion.  In either event we are\nhappy that this has been done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The larger picture with\nregard to the PTA is to hear the voices of all those in remand who have been\ngranted an order by the Magistrate\u2019s court and are awaiting the decision of the\nAG for release or indictment.  If all those could be considered for bail\nuntil a decision is made either way, as we proposed at our meeting, it will be\nof great value for a great number of those in remand under the\nPTA.  Consequently we call for the government to become more\ninstitutionalised and less ad hoc in its approach to human rights.  This\nis not only in regard to the content and implementation of the PTA but also the\nordinary law.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sri Lankan Collective for Consensus In recent days, the government has sent mixed signals with regard to improving the human rights situation in the country.  On December 10, on which day International Human Rights Day is celebrated, a civil society organisation in Kandy, the Human Rights Organisation headed by Fr Nandana Manatunga was issued a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}