The Bar Association of Sri Lanka says it is paying close attention to the declaration of a state of emergency.
The Bar Association of Sri Lanka urges the President to rescind the declaration of a state of emergency.
Also The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has requested the government to explain to the public the reasons for declaring a state of emergency.
That is because the protests were largely peaceful and within the confines of normal police operations.
The US Ambassador to Colombo says long-term solutions are needed to the real challenges facing Sri Lankans to bring the country back to the path of prosperity.
The ambassador added that declaring a state of emergency would not help.
The European Union (EU) has said the state of emergency will not solve the country’s problems.
UN Resident Coordinator Hannah Singer-Hamdy stressed that peaceful dissent is not an emergency.
She emphasizes that the root causes of the disagreement need to be addressed.
The Department of Government Information states that the President has implemented the Emergency Law with effect from yesterday (06) with the objective of ensuring political stability and uninterrupted normalcy of the people, which is an essential factor in the reforms that need to be made to overcome the current economic and social crisis.
The department said that Sri Lanka is now facing the worst economic and social crisis and political instability since independence as a whole as a result of a number of factors with short-term and long-term consequences.
It is generally accepted that in order to overcome this we need to undertake a series of in-depth reforms in our political, economic and social fabric, with the Department of Information taking the lead in managing the exchange deficit as soon as possible and restoring the supply of goods and services.
