A recent resolution adopted by the European Parliament, urging the EU Commission to consider temporary withdrawal of the GSP+ status given to Sri Lanka, has put the spotlight back on Sri Lanka’s human rights situation, prompting Colombo to defend its “multifaceted progress” in its response.

Sri Lanka regained the GSP +, or the EU’s ‘Generalised Scheme of Preferences’ in 2017, on Colombo’s commitment to implement 27 international conventions on human rights, labour conditions, protection of the environment and good governance. The status effectively removes import duties on goods from Sri Lanka entering the EU.

The June 10 resolution, expressing “deep concern over Sri Lanka’s alarming path towards the recurrence of grave human rights violations”, makes specific reference to the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, pointing to arrests of lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah and poet Ahnaf Jazeem, among others, who are in “arbitrary” detention for over a year.

The resolution notes the “continuing discrimination” against and violence towards religious and ethnic minorities , while voicing “serious concern” about the 20th Amendment passed in 2020, and the “resulting decline in judiciary independence, the reduction of parliamentary control, and the excessive accumulation of power with the presidency”.

Responding, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry on Friday said it regrets the adoption of the resolution that, it observed, “contains factual inaccuracies, and does not take cognisance of the multifaceted progress made by Sri Lanka in reconciliation and development.” Rejecting claims that the PTA is used for arbitrary detentions, the Ministry said it was “revisiting provisions” of the Act to propose “necessary amendments”, drawing upon international best practices.

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