HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2019 video footages, avoid broadcasting unverified rumors as news items, and ensuring that news reporting does not lead to hatred against refuges in transit in Sri Lanka, who are protected by the international law. ▪ Call for non-discrimination measures in public institutions in enforcing security Pursuant to receiving several complaints from women that they were prevented from entering public institutions due to their attire, HRCSL wrote to the Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Health, Department of Immigration and Emigration, all Governors of the Provincial Councils, all Chief Secretaries of Provincial Councils, all Secretaries of Provincial Health Ministries and all District Secretaries, and to the Judicial Services Commission requesting that the implementation of security measures in the aftermath of the April 21 terrorist attacks do not contravene the law by preventing access to essential services and the equal protection of the law. ▪ Maintaining the value of diversity and non-discrimination in institutions of higher education The Commission emphasized the need to ensure that the security measures put in place in the aftermath of the April 21 terrorist attacks are non-discriminatory and does not harm the relations between the various ethnic and religious communities represented in institutions of higher studies by way of letter dated 23.05.2019 addressed to the Chairperson of the University Grants Commission. The Commission stated that it continues to receive complaints of persons, particularly women, who have been refused access to public buildings and spaces even when they are not violating the Emergency Regulation that prohibits full face cover. The Commission brought this to the attention of the University Grants Commission and requested that the values of diversity and nondiscrimination are upheld in institutions of higher studies. ▪ Call for the Police Department to prevent sectarian violence and promote communal harmony 34