Security agencies shutting down civic space in Sri Lanka: HRW

• Published date: 04 March 2020
• Publication title: Sunday Times

Sri Lankan security agencies are stepping up surveillance, harassment, and threats against human rights activists and journalists, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today. Since November 2019, when the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa came into office, there has been a rapid closing of civic space and freedom of expression.

In interviews with 15 Sri Lankan human rights defenders working in different locations around the country, Human Rights Watch heard consistent accounts of increased surveillance and pressure from security agencies. Several said that intelligence officials had asked activists and victims about their advocacy plans ahead of the current United Nations Human Rights Council session, which began on February 24, 2020 in Geneva. 'We fear that international lobbying and travel to Geneva may not happen in future because of this situation,' one activist said.

'Since the return of the Rajapaksas to power, a state of fear is being re-established in Sri Lanka,' said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director...