A signature campaign is underway demanding that the widely criticised Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) is completely repealed.
Signatures were collected in Nelliady over the last two days and at Jaffna Central bus stand earlier this week, calling on Sri Lanka to repeal the notorious legislation which has been used disproportionately against Tamils and Muslims.
Tamil civil society and human rights organisations have recently ramped up their calls for the PTA to be repealed following Sri Lanka’s announcement of proposed ‘reforms’.
The proposed amendments have been criticised for still falling short of international standards.
In a recent report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) highlighted that an estimated “84 per cent of PTA prisoners are tortured after their arrest, and over 90 per cent of those were forced to sign a document in a language, Sinhala, they could not understand.”
Despite pledges by successive Sri Lankan governments, little has been done to repeal the PTA.
The campaign was launched on Tuesday at Fort Railway station in Colombo by Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian M A Sumanthiran.
In a statement, Sumanthiran said that "the government has given several assurances in the past that this legislation will be repealed, and a law enacted in its place that complies with international human rights standards and norms. However, the recent Amendment Bill presented to Parliament falls short of such assurances and fails to address any of the draconian provisions in the PTA”.
