Total Incidents:
0
Religious Identity of Victims:
-
0%
-
0%
-
0%
The National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka (NCEASL) documents incidents of attacks against persons and groups on the basis of their religious identity. During the period November 2023 to October 2024, it documented over 100 such incidents. Many of these incidents potentially constitute violations of Sri Lankan law, including Sri Lanka’s Constitution and penal legislation.
The study assessed the incidents categorised in the database and generated a quantitative breakdown of the various categories. It then assessed each incident in terms of the elements of specific provisions of Sri Lankan law that protect persons and groups on the basis of their religious identity.
Based on this assessment, this study offers a legal opinion on whether an incident potentially constitutes a violation of a fundamental rights guaranteed by the Sri Lankan Constitution or an offence under Sri Lankan law.
When providing a legal opinion the facts provided were considered against the legal test of the relevant legal provision. For example, when determining whether a FoRB violation has occurred, the following questions were answered:
The term ‘attack’ is used as an umbrella term to capture a number of acts, practices and policies that cause some form of harm to persons or groups on the basis of their religion. The term covers the following categories:
FoRB contains a number of aspects. It first entails the freedom of a person to have or adopt (and therefore change) a religion or belief. FoRB also entails the freedom of a person, either individually or together with others, to manifest their religion or belief through worship, observance or teaching.
Worship: extends to ritual and ceremonial acts giving direct expression to belief, as well as various practices integral to such acts, including the building of places of worship, the use of ritual formulae and objects, the display of symbols, and the observance of holidays and days of rest.
Observance and practice: include not only ceremonial acts but also such customs as the observance of dietary regulations, the wearing of distinctive clothing or head coverings, participation in rituals associated with certain stages of life, and the use of a particular language customarily spoken by a group.
Practice and teaching: include acts integral to the conduct by religious groups of their basic affairs, such as the freedom to choose their religious leaders, priests and teachers, the freedom to establish seminaries or religious schools and the freedom to prepare and distribute religious texts or publications.
Discrimination’ is defined to mean:
[A]ny distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference which is based on any ground such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status, and which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise by all persons, on an equal footing, of all rights and freedoms
Discrimination on the basis of religion may include a range of areas including socioeconomic discrimination, political discrimination, and discrimination in the application of law. For the purpose of this study, the discriminatory act that the incident involves should directly or indirectly target the religious identity of a person or group.
Physical Violence includes actions amounting to hurt or grievous hurt under Section 310 to 313 of the Penal Code.
Damage to Property is an action that amounts to an offence under Section 290 of the Penal Code
Incitement is an action that amounts to an offence under Section 290 of the Section 3(1) of the ICCPR Act.
Threat and Intimidation is an action that amounts criminal intimidation or assault under Section 483 and 343 of the Penal Code respectively.
Other Types of Non-Physical Attacks cover other offences such as Section 290A to 292 of the Penal Code and Sections 15 and 16 of the Online Safety Act and Section 6(1) of the Computer Crimes Act.
Perpetrators are grouped at a first level to State and Private Actros. State actors are further categorised into Ministries, Police and Forces, Local Government and State Institutions. Private Actors are categorised into Private Citizens, Organisation, and Religious Actors.
The universe of incidents analysed in this study is not necessarily representative of the prevailing situation in Sri Lanka or in any particular location in Sri Lanka. It is confined to the incidents that are detected through NCEASL’s network of monitors in specific locations. There may be many more incidents of religious attacks that have not been detected by this network. Therefore, the quantitative analysis presented in this study should be understood as an impression of the ground situation and not necessarily an accurate representation of it.
Any opinion formed was provided based on the information made available to the team and cannot be considered a factual conclusion with respect to the occurrence of a fundamental rights violation or an offence under Sri Lankan law.
