The world Human Rights Day was on the 10^th December. The event passed
in Sri Lanka without anything to celebrate in terms of any kind of
positive achievements in the area of human rights. In fact, looking
for human rights in Sri Lanka is becoming increasingly like looking
for water on the moon or in the desert.

Permissiveness of corruption which has now begun to permeate all areas
of life, virtually destroying all mechanisms of good governance,
destroys the possibility of achieving any human rights either in the
field of civil and political rights or social, economic and cultural
rights. Naturally the groups that suffer most are the most vulnerable
groups in society such as women, children, the elderly and the
minorities.

The system of the executive presidency that exists in Sri Lanka, which
is very similar to a system of absolute power in the system of the
monarchies, has undermined the parliamentary system and the judicial
system which had developed to some extent in the past. In the recent
decades the admiration for dictatorships which developed in the two
major political parties, the UNP and the SLFP helped to promote the
system of the executive presidency. The president in Sri Lanka is
above the law and there is nothing in the legal system that can
exercise any form of checks and balances in order to control the abuse
of power by the president.

The development of any abuse of power encourages the forces of
violence within society. Sri Lanka today is one of the most violent
societies where there is great permissiveness of extrajudicial
killings. In the recent decades extrajudicial killings have taken the
form of disappearances or various kinds of killings after arrest and
while in police or military custody.

Accompanied with extrajudicial killings are the various possibilities
that exist for prolonged detention without any recourse to judicial
remedies. Under emergency and anti terrorism laws people have been
kept for many years in detention without any possibility of obtaining
meaningful redress from the courts. Intervention by the courts has
been prevented by various kinds of suspensions of the ordinary laws of
criminal procedure and constitutional provisions.

Added to these are heavy psychological pressures which have been
created under the name of nationalism in order to discourage any kind
of sympathy for victims of human rights abuse. The judicial remedies
such as habeas corpus and fundamental rights provisions have suffered
greatly due to such pressures generated by nationalism. The
discouragement of the legal profession from providing a vigorous
service to the citizens to defend rights has also contributed to the
decline of human rights in Sri Lanka.

The use of torture is endemic in the policing system in Sri Lanka and
added to this is the use of torture in preventive detention under the
prevention of terrorism laws and the emergency regulations. All
possibilities of finding redress against torture have been suppressed
by deliberate denial of the investigative mechanisms into the
complaints of torture and other abuses of human rights.

The mechanism of investigation into complaints of human rights abuse
through the legal provisions of the criminal procedure code has been
suppressed by deliberate political manipulations which virtually
leaves the possibility of investigations in the hands of political
authorities. The secretariat of the Ministry of Defense has developed
a draconian system of controls on the security apparatus that has the
capacity of interfering in all investigations into human rights
abuses.

This interference has been used to encourage underground elements and
some sections of the security forces themselves to engage in illegal
activities towards those considered to be unacceptable elements to the
government. With this an enormous psychology of fear and intimidation
has been created within the country.

The abuse of civil rights has a direct impact on the economic, social
and cultural rights in the country. The attacks on journalists which
are known globally have placed Sri Lanka among the worst countries for
the suppression of freedom of expression. The assassination of
journalists has also lead to the fleeing of journalist from the
country. Added to this is the self-censorship that has spread due to
extreme forms of fear of repercussions.

Manipulating this situation the government has geared up its
propaganda mechanism to all state media and the abuse of the media is
one of the most visible factors in the country. Even the use of
language in the state media has so degenerated and the political
attacks on individuals and the abuse of individuals take place through
television and radio programmes generally throughout the day. The
entire state media is being used for political purposes, particularly
for manipulation of the electoral system to the detriment of all
opposition political parties.

Under these conditions it is the poor that naturally suffer the most.
The suppression of the trade unions and the organizations of the
ordinary folk among the farmers as well as the students and others
have taken many visible forms. The general deterioration of the living
standards is the complaint of all the population including the middle
class. Skyrocketing of the prices of essential goods, the enormous
problems in the transport systems, the breakdown of the health system
and the degeneration of the educational system are among the most
frequently heard complaints. However, all organized forums of
discussions of such discontent have been suppressed by various forms
of violence that is constantly being perpetrated on the population.

Under all these circumstances the assertion of any kind of rights has
become extremely difficult in Sri Lanka. It is no exaggeration to
assert that seeking human rights in Sri Lanka is as difficult as
looking water on the moon or in the desert.

This situation that exists in all parts of the country exists to most
unbearable extent in the north and the east. People living there are
victims of absolute impunity. Those who dare to make any complaint
about their tormentors run a real risk to their lives, liberty and
whatever that is left of their properties. Displacement has become a
normal affair in the homeland of the Tamil and Muslim populations.