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Continuous Assessment No. 1

COM1240 – Legal Environment

“I, G.A Gayan Akila – CPM 20870, hereby declare that this essay, submitted to the Legal Studies

Unit of the Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce of the University of Sri

Jayewardenepura, is my own, original work; wherever another author’s work has been used, it was

done using the appropriate mechanism and has been properly acknowledged in accordance with

established academic conventions.

I acknowledge that if I am found to be in violation of the above, I will be subject to a fitting penalty

in accordance with the examination by-laws of the University”.

APA Style
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The COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge for all the countries as they try to protect the population

with necessary public health measures. So, the Sri Lankan government also implemented several

control measures to reduce the spread of the covid-19. For example, restrictions on travel,

lockdowns, quarantining close contacts of the sick individual, restrictions on public gatherings,

university and school closures, cremation of covid-19's deaths and suspected covid-19's deaths,

tracking social movement, and vaccination programs. However, in implementing these pandemic

responses the government must take steps and restrictions to ensure that health and life are not

compromised. The restrictions must be implemented in a way that protects basic human rights.

Human rights responses can also be a powerful tool for preventing epidemics by emphasizing who

is suffering, why they are suffering, and how they are suffering.

So, while the Sri Lankan government's response helped to contain the COVID-19 spread at first,

some aspects of the plan were unnecessary, violated human rights, and the fundamental rights of

some citizens. One of these was the policy of mandatory cremation.

The National Operation Centre for Prevention of COVID - 19 Outbreak state that anyone who dies

from Covid-19 and suspected covid-19 shall be cremated. (MOH, 2020) Because burying people

who died of Covid-19 complications could contaminate groundwater (Vithanage, 2020). However,

according to World Health Organization guidelines, there is no evidence that the burial of COVID-

19 or suspected COVID-19 dead is a danger to public health and that burial is safe. (WHO, 2020)

This matter heavily impacted the Muslim community and some Christian groups. Because these

religions see cremation as a desecration of the dead.

As a result, it violates the human rights and affects some of the fundamental rights. Freedom of

religion or belief is a human right and has a collective component. It confers the right to hold

spiritual beliefs and to live by them, whether in private or in public, alone or in a community with

others. All citizens, therefore, possess a free choice to choose a method of disposal of a dead body,

in line with their religious perspective. (Equality and Human rights Commission, 2021) Article 10

of the Constitution concerned all person shall be right to freedom of thought, conscience, and

religion, of every person, including the freedom to have or adopt a religion or belief of their choice.

In addition, the government failed to practice equal treatment to every citizen. according to Article

12(2) of the Constitution, the Muslims and some Christian groups who believe it is part of their

religious duty to bury their dead. The cremation policy discriminates against them. Furthermore.

It is unacceptable and a violation of basic human rights to deny a person's dignity after death. Also

on December 1, 2020, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka dismissed all Fundamental Rights petitions

relating to the cremations protest before which challenged the directive on mandatory cremations,

effectively putting an end to any further legal challenges. (Mahamoor, 2020)

However, the Sri Lankan government has continued policy of mandatory cremation. In the

Constitution Article no 15(7) government can impeded, restricted, or denied the exercise and

operation of Articles 12, 13(1), 13(2) and 14 due to the protection of public health or morality.

Moreover, there have been several cases where Muslims whose bodies were cremated by the

authorities were not tested for coronavirus or tested negative. A report stated, One Muslim man

found that his mother had been wrongfully cremated. The day my mother died at the hospital, they

took her body away and then handed him the pot of her ashes. But the next day they said that his

mother’s test was negative, and it was a mistake to cremate her. (Ellis-Petersen, 2020) furthermore,
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The victims of the covid -19 were placed in a coffin and victim’s family must have to pay for the

coffin But Muslim do not bury their dead in coffins. Instead, the corpse is shrouded in white linen

and buried. And Amnesty International observed in a statement saying that families are being

forced to bear the cost of cremation, typically around LKR 50,000-60,000, in a year that has

economically strained many families. As a result, Muslim families have refused the ashes and the

related payment because of the violence of not only having to watch as a loved one's body is

desecrated but also having to bear the cost of this act (Mahamoor, 2020) Therefore, we can see the

authorities have acted in a manner that is arbitrary, unreasonable, irresponsible and violates

fundamental rights. Under these scenarios, the relevant authorities have failed to give equal

protection and equality according to Act12(1) of the Constitution.

As these situations happen, the international and local human rights communities asked several

times for the government to reconsider the mandatory cremation policy. As a result, after 10

months the Sri Lankan government end their mandatory cremation policy and allowed both burials

and cremations. (thehindu.com, 2021)

The COVID-19 is a serious health problem. Government and citizens all have a collective role to

play to effectively face this pandemic but without losing our humanity, we must do this. we must

seek to achieve the greater common good of restricting the virus, even if these rights relate to a

minority community, we must not unfairly completely ignore the rights of these citizens. the

government has the obligation to respect, protect and promote human rights and fundamental rights

and such rights may not be impeded, restricted, or denied except and only to the extent that is

allowed by law. And, as a citizen need to understand that due to the pandemic there is public
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emergency under which certain rights can be limited including the expression of freedom of

religion and belief. It is important those who with the power decide logically and scientifically but

more importantly, need to look transparently on matters like this and need to communicate with

the community when these decisions are taken. A positive outcome can be achieved if we promote

open dialogue between the State authorities and the community to reach a practical solution or a

compromise. So, doing this work can prevent these kinds of situations when they happened in the

future.
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References

Ministry of health (2020, September of 30 th) Autopsy practices and disposal of humain remains of

deaths occurring in Sri Lanka during the mandatory quarantine period, Epidemiology Unit.

Availableathttps://www.epid.gov.lk/web/images/pdf/Circulars/Corona_virus/autopsy%20practic

es.pdf [Accessed 22 June 2021]

Vithanage, M (2020, April of 7th) Science behind burying the COVID-19 infected dead bodies,

The Sri Lankan scientist. Available at https://scientist.lk/2020/04/07/science-behind-burying-the-

covid-19-infected-dead-bodies/ [Accessed 22 June 2021]

World Health Organization (2020, March of 24th) Infection Prevention and Control for the safe

management of a dead body in the context of COVID-19, WHO. Available at

https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/331538/WHO-COVID-19-lPC_DBMgmt-

2020.1-eng.pdf [Accessed 22 June 2021]

Ellis-Petersen, H (2020, December of 4th) Muslims in Sri Lanka 'denied justice' over forced

cremations of Covid victims, The guardian. Available at

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/dec/04/muslims-sri-lanka-justice-forced-cremations-

covid-victims [Accessed 22 June 2021]

Mahamoor, R (2020, December of 12th) Forced Cremations in Sri Lanka, Amnesty International.

Available at https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/12/forced-cremations-in-sri-lanka/

[Accessed 22 June 2021]

Equality and Human rights Commission (2021) Article 9 protects your right to freedom of thought,

belief and religion, equality human rights. Available at

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/human-rights-act/article-9-freedom-thought-belief-

and-religion [Accessed 23 June 2021]

The Hindu (2021) Sri Lanka ends forced cremations of COVID-19 victims, The Hindu. Available

at https://www.thehindu.com/news/international/sri-lanka-ends-forced-cremations-of-covid-19-

victims/article33940422.ece [Accessed 23 June 2021]