He was talking at a meeting sorted out by the International Center for Ethnic Studies (ICES) and the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) held at the ICES Auditorium on Thursday third December and Friday fourth December 2015.
The Consultation came a day after the Sri Lankan Cabinet of Ministers gave its stamp of endorsement to a draft law on the Right to Information (RTI). Establishing a RTI law was a piece of the 100 day project of the present Government. In any case, the law did not get went amid the 100 day period.
The Deputy-Minister underlined this time there is political will to make the RTI law a reality, and that a majority rule government can't get by without responsibility. This is the second time in 12 years that the Cabinet has endorsed a draft RTI law, on the past event Parliament was disintegrated under the steady gaze of the law could be passed.
The Deputy-Minister remarked on two difficulties to address: guaranteeing the enactment enough adjusts the exclusions against the obligation to uncover data; and also, the need to make an execution structure that is viable. He noticed that the exceptions to the divulgence of data ought to be minimized and be particular. The Deputy-Minister encouraged common society and the media to bring the theme under open investigation and make it a subject of open examination.
The Deputy-Minister noticed the part that innovation plays in actualizing the privilege to data and the significance of utilizing imaginative innovation as a part of encouraging open government. Sri Lanka has joined the Open Government Partnership (OGP), which requires the legislature to set up a two-year activity arrangement for advancing open government. Community to data and making spaces for national cooperation in choice making procedures at all levels of government are two noteworthy mainstays of this overall development, which presently has more than 60 individuals. Sri Lanka is the main nation in South Asia that has joined the OGP, regardless of the nonappearance of a current RTI law.
Dr Jayampathy Wickramaratne, MP and Chairperson of the RTI Bill Drafting Committee, likewise partaking in the RTI meeting, underscored that the exceptions in the draft Bill must be tried against the protected insurance of the privilege to data contained in Article 14(A) embedded by the late nineteenth Amendment. He urged common society to raises issues of irregularity with the Constitution with the Government furthermore in the Supreme Court. Dr Wickramaratne likewise focused on the significance of taking the draft to non-English gatherings of people for important and across the board discussion.
