Counter Terrorism draft almost ready

The revised draft of the Counter Terrorism Act which has been sent to the Legal Draftsman is currently in the process of being converted into a Bill, a government source said.

A top level government official, speaking to the Daily News, said the legal framework and the framework of the proposed Counter Terrorism Act (CTA) underwent certain revisions based on four experts’ reports, provided by the consultancy appointed, on a request from the Sri Lankan government, by the United Nations to express its view on the said Bill. “Then the revised version went before the Cabinet once again early this year and the Cabinet once again approved it. The revised text was sent to the Legal Draftsman in mid January to convert it into a draft Bill.”

“On the other hand, it was sent to the Parliamentary Sectoral Oversight Committee on National Security and they were also invited to look into the revised version also. This is basically where we are now,” the government source said.

Once the Legal Draftsman completes converting the Counter Terrorism legal framework into a Bill, it will go before the Cabinet and then tabled in Parliament when decided by the Prime Minister, the source also said. The source pointed out, with highly complex and debatable issues attached to the Counter Terrorism legislation, it is unlikely that a pluralistic community like Sri Lanka’s, with the history it has gone through, will ever agree on a uniform definition on the term ‘terrorism’, which is the primary challenge in drafting the Bill.

The source also said the CTA is an outcome of a dynamic assembly appointed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, chaired by the Law and Order Minister of which there were representatives from law enforcement agencies, police, security establishments, Foreign Affairs Ministry, Attorney Generals’ and independent lawyers with human rights orientation, and multitude of people who worked for about six months and developed a policy and legal framework of the future Counter Terrorism Act. It is extremely challenging to create a sound legislation on Counter Terrorism on par with human rights norms and standards, the government source further said.

“The world over, developing counter terrorism legislation is very efficacious to meet terrorism-related challenges while ensuring that the legislation does not give rise to abuses as well as human rights violations,” he said.

“It is a very difficult challenge,” he said. “A fine balance has to be created. Some countries develop legislation which are compatible with human rights norms and standards but some of the legislation at times are weak and is not sufficiently strong to deal with the menace of terrorism.”

“Then there are countries that have developed strong legislation against terrorism which unfortunately gives rise to a lot of abuses and create situations that give rise to the infringement of human rights. So, striking a balance is extremely difficult,” the source said.

The source pointed out that most countries have found it extremely challenging to strike a fine balance between national security requirements and the need to counter terrorism in an efficacious manner while adhering to human rights norms and standards.

He also pointed out it becomes more challenging when the entire scope of legislation is founded upon a subjective term like ‘terrorism’.

“The primary challenge is to find a definition to ‘terrorism’. Up to date, the international community has been unable to agree on a definition to the word ‘terrorism’. What you or I see as terrorism, from a different political perspective may be seen but as ‘liberation’. And what we see as liberation, somebody else might see as terrorism. So this is why it is difficult to come to a unanimously agreed upon definition or legislation,” he explained.

The source explained one main objective of replacing the Prevention of Terrorism Act with the CTA, is that there are contemporary and emerging manifestations of terrorism that have to be responded to effectively by way of legislation as well as legislation based law enforcement actions. He explained that certain international laws require Sri Lanka to act in accordance with some requirements referred as ‘obligations’ of a county.

“Now some of these obligations require Sri Lanka to make laws in the field of countering terrorism. Some of those requirements have already being fulfilled by way of legislation. All the requirements are not yet being fulfilled. This is seen as an opportunity to fulfill those obligations that have not yet been fulfilled,” he explained.

Preparing a CTA is also an opportunity to ensure that the laws that we develop are compatible with international human rights norms and standards. Sri Lanka also gets the opportunity to learn from countries which have strict counter-terrorism legislation and derive their experiences and from their legislation to ensure that the law that we develop meets with developed legislation in this field of counter-terrorism.