How a human rights law became a tool of repression in Sri Lanka

The recent arrest of the YouTuber Sepal Amarasinghe has drawn attention to Sri Lanka's International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) Act. Amarasinghe is accused of making disparaging comments about the Sacred Tooth Relic in Kandy, which many Buddhists venerate. His arrest is not the first time the ICCPR Act has been deployed to punish speech deemed to be offensive to Buddhism. In 2019, the writer Shakthika Sathkumara was similarly arrested for publishing a fictional short story titled 'Ardha' ('Half'). The story was considered offensive to Buddhism and the Buddhist clergy as it depicted sexual abuse in Buddhist temples.

Both Amarasinghe and Sathkumara were arrested under Section 3 of the ICCPR Act, while also facing other charges. This section is modelled on Article 20 of an international human rights treaty bearing the same name, to which Sri Lanka is party. How did a law that was originally crafted to protect human rights become a repressive tool to punish blasphemy in Sri Lanka?