The Substitution Engine — Sri Lanka's Punishment Stack (2022–2026)
மாற்றீட்டு எந்திரம் · தண்டனை அடுக்கு
A UK-Parliament briefing pack on the PTA → PSTA + ICCPR §3 + Online Safety Act + Penal Code §120/291B substitution architecture. Anchored on OHCHR A/HRC/40/52/Add.3 (2019), ICJ (2018), Amnesty International (2023) and Article 19 (2024). Introduces the Coercion(t) index (ECSL M09) and the ΔK substitution-surplus indicator for use in UK ODA conditionality review and UNHRC statements.
Audience & use
Audience: UK MPs · Lords · FCDO · Home Office · APPG for Tamils · APPG on Global LGBT+ Rights · APPG on Human Rights
Best used for: Written questions on UK government position on the Sri Lankan Anti-Terrorism Bill / PSTA relative to the PTA it replaces · Letters to FCDO on ODA conditionality against the aggregate coercive ceiling (K) rather than any single repealed instrument · APPG evidence sessions on the Online Safety Act No. 9 of 2024 in the context of ICCPR §3 charge-swap patterns · Committee submissions to the International Development Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee on the substitution architecture
Remembrance frame
The pack does not name any defendant, prosecutor, magistrate or judge. It audits the architecture of the statute book — the aggregate coercive ceiling available to the executive across the 2022–2026 repeal-and-replace window. The moratorium on judicial execution since 1976 is acknowledged as a governmental fact; the ceiling remains on the statute book, which is the point.
Two-layer reading
Cited Tier-A evidence is open and unresolved. Statements honour memory; evidence remains under-actioned.
Each anniversary produces tabled PQs, FCDO follow-ups, and a tracked answer.
Evidence anchors (Tier-A)
Policy asks
Sample Parliamentary Questions
- written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what HM Government's assessment is of the finding by Amnesty International that the Sri Lankan Anti-Terrorism Bill is functionally broader than the Prevention of Terrorism Act it replaces. - written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether UK official development assistance to Sri Lanka is conditioned against the aggregate statutory coercive ceiling in the counter-terrorism and public-order statute book, rather than against any single repealed instrument. - written → Home Office
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment has been made of the Sri Lankan Online Safety Act 2024, in particular sections 12, 16 and 20, in the current Country Policy and Information Note on Sri Lanka. - written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations HM Government has made to the Government of Sri Lanka on the follow-up to the 2019 report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-Terrorism (A/HRC/40/52/Add.3). - written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations HM Government intends to make to the European Commission ahead of the next GSP+ biennial monitoring mission to Sri Lanka regarding the aggregate coercive ceiling in the counter-terrorism and public-order statute book. - written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what assessment HM Government has made of the pattern of Article 34 presidential pardons of convicted perpetrators in Sri Lanka, documented by OHCHR, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, when read against prolonged pre-trial detention of Tamil civilians under section 15A of the Prevention of Terrorism Act. - written → FCDO
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether HM Government's Sri Lanka position takes account of the concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee on Malaysia (CCPR/C/MYS/CO/1, 2024) and Pakistan (CCPR/C/PAK/CO/2, 2024) as regional comparator jurisprudence on parallel counter-terror and public-order statute-book architectures.
Pack-specific safety rules
- Never names an individual defendant, prosecutor, magistrate, or judge.
- Never predicts a specific charge or sentence in any live matter.
- Never claims the death penalty is 'active' — the 1976 moratorium is acknowledged; the statutory ceiling is the audit object.
- Always cites the statutory instrument (Act No., section) before quoting a ceiling.
- Always pairs domestic instruments with a Tier-A external anchor (OHCHR / ICJ / Amnesty / Article 19 / HRW / UN WGAD).
- Lobbying Act 2014 transparency note on every printed brief.