Sri Lankan Bar Association to take legal action against government's declaration of high security zones:Report

A day after the Sri Lankan President declared several governmental buildings areas as high security zones and banned any protests in such locations, the country's powerful Bar Association on Saturday said it would take legal action against the ''draconian'' decision to ensure that no fundamental rights of the people are infringed.

Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday through an extraordinary gazette declared several key locations in Colombo, including Parliament, Supreme Court complex and the President’s Secretariat among others, as high security zones, banning any protests in premises near to it.

The move, which are restrictions to those of during Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam days that saw suicide explosions at such key locations, prevents even parking of cars in any of the areas near to the premises of the key government buildings.

Significantly some of the designated locations were the sites for large public agitations which demanded the resignation of the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa between early April to mid July as the people agitated against Rajapaksha family for handling Sri Lanka’s economic crisis.

Reacting to the government's move, the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (BASL) said that it will be carefully studying the provisions of the order issued by the President and will take appropriate legal action to ensure that the fundamental rights of the people are secured, the Colombo Gazette reported.

Calling the provision of the order ''draconian,'' the BASL said that such orders violate the freedom of expression, the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of movement.

“The BASL is deeply concerned that under the cover of the purported order under Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act that there is the imposition of draconian provisions for the detention of persons who violate such orders thus violating the freedom of expression, the freedom of peaceful assembly and the freedom of movement all of which are important aspects of the right of the people to dissent in Sri Lanka,” the report quoted a statement from the BASL as saying.

As per the new notification, protests and public gatherings in the areas declared as High Security Zones are banned while vehicle parking won’t be allowed in the vicinity of any of the designated locations.

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