Download the full report here.
After a fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka earlier this year the International Bar Association Human Rights Institute has stated that the country’s ‘judicial independence, the increase in threats and attacks against lawyers filing fundamental rights applications, representing terrorist suspects and taking anti-corruption cases, and the situation of journalists are areas of particular concern.’
The IBAHRI delegation to Sri Lanka comprised Lord Goodhart QC, member of the House of Lords and former Vice President of the International Commission of Jurists; Mr YeoYang Poh, barrister at law and former President of the Malaysian Bar Association; Mr Alex Wilks, IBAHRI Programme Lawyer and Ms Michelle Butler, barrister at law and mission rapporteur.
The final report added that ‘the increase in attacks against lawyers filing fundamental rights applications, representing terrorist suspects and taking anti-corruption cases has created an escalating climate of fear amongst the legal profession which was not apparent at the time of the last visit (2001). The threats and attacks against these lawyers are not considered to be isolated events but rather form part of a pattern of intimidation routinely expressed against members of civil society, including journalists, academics and NGO workers, who are perceived to be critical or challenging of the Government or its policies, particularly with respect to the conflict with the LTTE. The brazen nature of some of the attacks, the lack of prompt and effective investigation or prosecution, and the consequential sense of impunity surrounding these incidents, have exacerbated this climate of fear.’