HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2019 State of Human Rights in Sri Lanka 2019 The Easter Sunday terror attacks that shocked the entire Island and its aftermath cast a pall over the entire society, and defined the tenor of human rights situation in the country in 2019. These attacks against civilians and also the violence and discriminatory practices targeting the Muslim community in the aftermath of the attacks defined the human rights situation in the country in 2019. On 21 April 2019 (Easter Sunday) three churches in different parts of Sri Lanka and three luxury hotels in Colombo were targeted in a series of coordinated suicide bombings. The State of Emergency declared immediately following the Easter Sunday attacks remained in place for four months. While the need for heightened security measures was indisputable, the manner in which emergency laws were applied led to concerns of human rights violations. The spate of anti-Muslim violent acts in the immediate aftermath of the Easter Sunday attacks highlighted many underlying ethnic and religious tensions and racial divisions in the country. Symptomatic of the religious intolerance was the many incidents of harassment of women based on religious attire that were reported by Muslim women. As a whole, the attack had a chilling effect on democratic ideals and a tightening of democratic spaces in which citizens could exercise vigil over government actions. It again brought into question the protection afforded to ethnic and religious minorities in the country, especially in the lackadaisical response of the security forces to quelling the violence. HRCSL made numerous interventions to safeguard the rights of the people, particularly to ensure that emergency laws are applied without discrimination and with cultural and religious sensitivity. The Commission also focused extensively on the right to exercise franchise in an inclusive manner during the Presidential Election held in November 2019. It made interventions to ensure all registered voters were able to cast their votes, including recommending the state to 13