{"id":188956,"date":"2018-03-22T20:54:22","date_gmt":"2018-03-22T15:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=188956"},"modified":"2018-03-23T13:37:33","modified_gmt":"2018-03-23T08:07:33","slug":"sri-lankas-only-solid-boast-before-unhrc-2018-the-rti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/sri-lankas-only-solid-boast-before-unhrc-2018-the-rti\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka\u2019s Only Solid Boast Before UNHRC 2018 &#8211; The RTI!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">The only concrete action that the Government of Sri Lanka relied on during its statement to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=UNHRC\">United Nations Human Rights Council<\/a> at its 37<span style=\"font-size: 13.3333px;\">th<\/span><\/span><span class=\"s1\">\u00a0session yesterday (21<\/span><span class=\"s2\"><sup>st<\/sup><\/span><span class=\"s1\"> March 2018) in Geneva was that Sri Lanka\u2019s globally praised <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Right+to+Information\">Right to Information<\/a> Act was in full implementation mode and that the Right to Information Commission was functioning effectively and \u2018disposing of a large number of appeals\u2019!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_153056\" style=\"width: 306px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Marapana.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-153056\" class=\"size-full wp-image-153056\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Marapana.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"296\" height=\"379\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Marapana.jpg 296w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Marapana-234x300.jpg 234w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 296px) 100vw, 296px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-153056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Marapana<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Reading out the Statement, Foreign Minister <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mfa.gov.lk\/index.php\/en\/media\/ministers-statements\/7538-hrc37-fm\">Tilak Marapana<\/a> otherwise, only pointed to a long list of \u201cpromises\u201d, hopeful assurances that the recently established Office of Missing Persons will \u201cdischarge its mandate effectively.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Minister Marapana also repeated that Legislation to give effect to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was passed by the Parliament on 7 March. Activists currently participating in the Geneva sessions have however pointed out that the Act on Enforced Disappearances had been severely diluted and have raised questions as to how effective it will be in its current form in actually acting as a practical deterrent. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Unlike the<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Enforced Disappearances Act, the Right to Information Act was not toned down mainly because powerful lobbying bodies such as the Editors Guild of Sri Lanka informed the Government that it would not agree to any compromises in that respect.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Facing combined English, Sinhala and Tamil media pressure, the Government backed down and allowed a strong law to be passed in 2016. It however deprived the RTI Commission of independent funding during its first year in office, leaving the Commission to its own efforts and to virtually \u2018sink or swim.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">\u2018The Government boasts of the Commission now but this succeeded only because Commission members worked with no funds during the first make-or-break year of its functioning.\u2019 said a consultant working with the Foreign Affairs Ministry on its Geneva performance who did not wish to be identified. \u2018Impartial Commissioners were not brought in by the Government but were nominated by independent groups including the media and civil society. But proving the effectiveness of the OMP which has a Chair who is the President\u2019s lawyer and was \u2018parachuted\u2019 over the head of the Constitutional Council will be a different problem\u2019 he criticized.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">Minister Marapana also informed the Council that the Prevention of Terrorism Act is proposed to be repealed and replaced with a counter-terrorism law that conforms to human rights safeguards and other international standards. \u2018In terms of our Constitution and legal processes, this legislation will be finalized after due parliamentary procedures are followed.\u2019 he said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p2\"><span class=\"s1\">However the draft counter-terrorism law has not yet been provided to the Sri Lankan public despite several calls by activists to make its contents known.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p4\"><span class=\"s1\"><span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":153117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,2186,1,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-featured-news","category-news","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Sri Lanka\u2019s Only Solid Boast Before UNHRC 2018 - The RTI! 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