The government of Sri Lanka (GOSL) considered human rights as an irrelevant issue and talks only about development. The concept of development does not include the guaranteeing of human rights. In fact, the violations of human rights are justified on the basis of the priorities that should be given to what is called development. What development seems to mean is the building of some roads and the construction of some highways and the like. The adoption of the 18th Amendment to the Constitution has further strengthened the position of the executive president who already has absolute power under the 1978 Constitution. Some attempts were made to limit this power by way of the 17th Amendment and the 18th Amendment negated all those attempts. The result is that the judiciary is incapable of protecting the rights of the individual as against the power of the state. When the state crushes the rights of the people no room is left for the judiciary to intervene and invalidate any illegal interference into the rights of the people. Basically, the liberties enshrined in the Magna Carta do not exist for the people of Sri Lanka now.
AHRC-SPR-011-2011-HRRptSriLanka
