Asia Democracy Research Network Year Six - Sri Lanka’s Prevention of Terrorism Act:

Following a visit to Sri Lanka in 2017, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and Counter-Terrorism referred to the “industrial-scale injustice” the PTA perpetrates against Tamils and warned that its abuses will only reignite the 6 conflict. [...] If, as noted above, the quest for separatism legitimated the PTA, the likes of The Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) continue to 10 use the act to abuse those defending human rights and seeking accountability for war crimes. [...] Indeed, neither the COVID-19 pandemic nor the pressure put on the government during the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) meetings in Geneva from February to March curtailed the regime‟s anti-Muslim agitprop. [...] Even as the UNHRC was debating the sorry state of human rights in Sri Lanka (including the islamophobia trending on the island), a leading hyper- nationalist minister called for banning the burqa and shuttering over 1,000 madrassas on national 23 security grounds. [...] Congressional committees partly points to the “impunity [that] prevails in the country with the outdated and the excessively harsh Prevention of Terrorism Act, which does not comply with international standards and has still not 26 been repealed despite repeated promises by the government.” This coincides with a resolution adopted by the European Parliament, which notes how the PTA has “led to con.