HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF SRI LANKA, Annual Report 2019 While acknowledging that Emergency Regulations were needed immediately following the Easter Sunday attacks in order to provide protection to the public and to restore normalcy, the Commission urged His Excellency the President to ensure that Emergency Regulations are implemented by relevant officers in a manner that safeguards everyone’s rights and with cultural and religious sensitivity. The Commission drew the attention of the President to Directives issued in 2016 by the Commission on arrest and detention under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. The President had issued those same guidelines as Presidential Guidelines (with certain amendments), to the relevant authorities to be followed when acting under the Prevention of Terrorism Act or Emergency Regulations. The Commission requested him to reissue the said presidential guidelines to law enforcement authorities once again to be followed when using emergency powers. At the same time, HRCSL issued recommended guidelines to be followed by law enforcement authorities during search operations. ▪ Guidelines to prevent arbitrary arrest The Commission issued guidelines to the Police by way of letter dated 02.07.2019 addressed to the Acting IGP in order to prevent arbitrary and illegal arrests. The Commission had received a large number of complaints on arbitrary arrests and detention under the PTA pursuant to the April 21 terror attacks. HRCSL emphasized the need to ensure that arrests are made only on the basis of reasonable suspicion. The Guidelines called for arrests to be made based on solid evidence to form a reasonable suspicion pursuant to proper investigations; arrests not to be made merely on hearsay; where cultural issues are involved, such as the identification of religious symbols or identifying contents written in an alien language, proper expert opinion to be obtained; where identification of chemical substances or contents of computer files or video footage or the like are involved expert opinion to be obtained; and arrests to be made not before, but after receiving credible information based on expert analysis and opinion, and on reasonable suspicion. The IGP subsequently issued instructions and directions to all police officers on arrest procedures based on these recommendations. 32