Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment: A Violation Of UN Charter
Thambu Kanagasabai
Sri Lanka’s Sixth Amendment: A Violation Of UN Charter And Fundamental Human Rights
Late President JR Jayewardene of Sri Lanka after allowing and being complicit in the massacres of Tamils in the 1977, 1983 pogroms and justifying them as a normal reaction of Sinhalese to take revenge on innocent Tamils, hurriedly passed the 6th amendment to the constitution in August 1983 to stifle the voice of Tamils.
The amendment’s important sections are under:
Article. 157
“No political party or other association or organization shall have one of its objectives or aims in the establishment of a separate state within the territories of Sri Lanka”
“No person shall directly or indirectly in or outside Sri Lanka, support, espouse, promote, finance, encourage or advocate the establishment of a separate state within the territory of Sri Lanka which if found guilty could strip his/her civic rights etc.
Penalties include: Loss of civic rights citizenship, confiscation of moveable and unmoveable properties etc. There is also a provision “requiring elected members of parliament to take oaths swearing allegiance and loyalty to the unitary constitution of Sri Lanka”
It is relevant to note that a case against Tamil National Alliance Party is now pending in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka alleging their violation of the 6th amendment by indirectly and/or directly calling for a separate state for Tamils in their election manifesto. However, Tamil National Alliance Party has subsequently handed over a written undertaking to the Speaker in the Parliament of Sri Lanka owing their allegiance to a unitary state and renouncing a separate state for Tamils in Sri Lanka. This matter is thus silenced by the Tamil National Alliance Party for the time being and it is still open for Tamil National Alliance to raise the legality and validity of the provisions of sixth amendment which flout the provisions of UN Charter and UN Covenant on Civil and Political rights 1966 and the International Covenant on Economic and Social rights 1966 to which Sri Lanka is a signatory.
