More lawyers support Sri Lanka suspension

The Law Society of South Africa has added its voice to growing calls to suspend Sri Lanka from the Commonwealth Lawyers Association.

Sri Lanka: facing association suspension

The society came out in support of a CLA resolution against Sri Lanka, which is due to host the 54-nation body’s next summit meeting in November, reports Business Day Live.
The resolution declares that the Sri Lankan government violated the rule of law when it unlawfully impeached its former chief justice, Shirani Bandaranayake.

'Badge of respectability’

President of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association – and partner at London firm HowardKennedyFsi - Mark Stephens, said being a member of the Commonwealth was a ‘badge of respectability’ and awarding Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa  the status of chair was ‘effectively to reward a state’s miscreant behaviour’.
The resolution was taken unanimously last week in Cape Town by about 900 lawyers, judges and law teachers from across the 54 countries that make up the Commonwealth, and has also been backed by the Law Society of England and Wales.

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