States of Emergency - Centre for Policy Alternatives

that of the person committing the act), or (g) creating a serious
risk to public health and safety, or (h) is designed to interfere with
or disrupt an electronic system; and which is aimed at (a)
endangering the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka
or any other recognised sovereign State, or (b) any other political
or governmental change, or (c) compelling the government of Sri
Lanka to do or abstain from doing any act, and includes any other
unlawful activity which advocates or propagates such unlawful
conduct. ‘SpeciLied terrorist activity’ is deLined as any offence
speciLied in the PTA, the PSO, Section 3 of the Prevention of Money
Laundering Act No. 5 of 2006, Section 3 of the Convention on the
Suppression of Terrorist Financing Act No. 25 of 2005, and any
offence under Sections 114, 115, 116, 117, 121, 122, 128, 129 of
the Penal Code.
On the face of the text, the wide, overbroad language of these
regulations could lend themselves to abuse, in that, in addition to
dealing with activities that the State could legitimately restrain or
prohibit in the interests of national security and the suppression
of terrorism, they could also serve to
curtail legitimate democratic
activity and fundamental freedoms, dissent and the autonomy of
civil society. In particular the wide range of activities prohibited by
Regulation 6, 7 and 8, the deLinition of terrorism in Regulation 20
and the immunity clause, Regulation 19. These provisions are
overbroad, drafted in very wide language, and where offences
have not expressly been established, they allow for the possible
criminalisation of a range of legitimate activities of civil society,
and could violate constitutionally protected fundamental rights.
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