UN to evaluate Defence Ministry’s warning to NGOs
July 8, 2014 02:01 pm
The United Nations says it will study and evaluate a warning issued by Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry to all non-governmental organisations in the country to prevent “unauthorised activities” with immediate effect.
The National Secretariat for Non Governmental Organisations, which functions under the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, said in a letter dated July 1, 2014, that: “ It has been revealed that certain Non Governmental Organizations conduct press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate.” They are ordered to cease this forthwith.
Asked by journalists about the UN’s position on this, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General said: “We will check. We will have to study what this particular injunction was, and we will have to evaluate that.”
Taking objection to the letter, the Lawyers’ Collective in Sri Lanka has said it is the Defence Ministry that has acted beyond its mandate.
“Only authoritarian regimes prevent such democratic engagements,” it said in a statement issued on Monday. The MoD letter, it said, was an indication of the limited understanding of the powerful Sri Lankan establishment on civil liberties.
The MoD’s release, the Collective said, further strengthened the allegation that Sri Lanka has now become an authoritarian state, something that outgoing Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay also expressed concern over, during her August 2013 visit to the island.
The National Secretariat for Non Governmental Organisations, which functions under the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development, said in a letter dated July 1, 2014, that: “ It has been revealed that certain Non Governmental Organizations conduct press conferences, workshops, training for journalists, and dissemination of press releases which is beyond their mandate.” They are ordered to cease this forthwith.
Asked by journalists about the UN’s position on this, Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General said: “We will check. We will have to study what this particular injunction was, and we will have to evaluate that.”
Taking objection to the letter, the Lawyers’ Collective in Sri Lanka has said it is the Defence Ministry that has acted beyond its mandate.
“Only authoritarian regimes prevent such democratic engagements,” it said in a statement issued on Monday. The MoD letter, it said, was an indication of the limited understanding of the powerful Sri Lankan establishment on civil liberties.
The MoD’s release, the Collective said, further strengthened the allegation that Sri Lanka has now become an authoritarian state, something that outgoing Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay also expressed concern over, during her August 2013 visit to the island.
