The Sri Lankan government has announced that it will tighten controls on non-governmental organisations, as it looks to enact changes to legislation regarding volunteer and charity organisations.
Sri Lankan Minister Gayantha Karunathilake said that changes to a 1980 law would be made, increasing controls over such organisations. EconomyNext reports that the changes are partly driven by a “requirement of the Financial Intelligence Unit of the Central Bank which is in charge of Anti-Money laundering/Combatting Terrorism Finance (AML/CFT), activities.”
However it also expressed concern that such laws have also been used to “crackdown on political opponents, spy on unarmed citizens and their activities without getting court orders or showing just cause, while also causing problems for day-to-day activities of customers of banks and other companies.”
“The current administration has also enacted deadly law on digital identification which allows the defence secretary to spy on people without a court order, which lays the foundation of a 'big brother' state,” it added.
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