Becket Fund Statement -
Sri Lankan Government to Introduce Anti-Conversion Bill

The Sri Lankan government is poised to introduce its own anti-conversion bill in parliament in the beginning of April. With government support and calls for a conscience vote, its passage would be all but assured. This is a dramatic development and all efforts must be made to prevent this bill’s introduction. The stakes are particularly high as the law will jeopardize all religiously-affiliated tsunami relief aid now pouring into Sri Lanka. Faith-based aid providers would be subject to up to seven years in prison if accused of “attempted conversion” for aiding the needy while retaining their religious identities.

Unfortunately, it appears that the many assurances coming from the Sri Lankan embassy in the US for the last few months—stating that “there is no government support for an anti-conversion bill”—were mistaken at best and misleading at worst. The Buddhist-monk controlled JHU party, introduced a similar anti-conversion bill last year but hit a constitutional roadblock because it included draconian reporting requirements of all conversion related activity (the JHU only holds nine seats in parliament compared to the governing coalition’s 105). The government bill (latest known draft here), however, will likely avoid a similar fate as it does not include the same constitutionally objectionable clauses found in the defective JHU bill.

It bears repeating: the Sri Lanka Supreme Court upheld the core anti-conversion clauses in the JHU bill and will in all likelihood do the same with the government bill. In fact, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court has held that “the constitution does not recognize a fundamental right to propagate a religion” and that “the propagation and spreading of Christianity . . . would impair the very existence of Buddhism.” (See our Legal Analysis page.) The government bill is not limited to the just preventing Christian conversions, however, as it criminalizes conversion to Sri Lanka's other large minority religions--namely Islam and Hinduism--as well. By contrast conversions to Buddhism would likely allowed under the law as Buddhism is guaranteed “foremost place” by the Sri Lankan constitution.

In the coming days, The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty will be actively cooperating with governments, NGOs, and relevant agencies in Sri Lanka, the U.S. and the U.N. in order to prevent a disastrous defeat for religious freedom in Sri Lanka.