A newspaper had published stories that called attention to police and Army brutality. The government ordered the newspaper shut down, and the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka upheld the closure. In so doing, the Court rejected international freedom of expression norms. ''The Court will respect the [Universal] Declaration [of Human Rights] and the Covenants but their legal relevance here is only in the field of interpretation.'' See also Chelliah v. Parange, 2 Sri Lanka Law Reports 132 (1982) (constitutional guarantee of right to personal liberty ''is based upon Article 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights''); Perera v. Attorney-General, S.C. Nos. 107-109/86, slip op. (1986) (unreported) (Sri Lanka) (referring to the UDHR's permissible limitations on rights in interpreting the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech); Velmurugu v. Attorney-General, 1 Sri Lanka Law Reports 406 (1981), Thadchanamoorthi v. Attorney-General, F.R.D. (1) 129 (Sri Lanka) (discussing the interpretation by the European Commission and Court of Human Rights regarding the scope of governmental libaility for ill-treatment and torture).

(found in ''The Status of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in National and International Law'' by Hurst Hannum, Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law, Vol. 25, Nos. 1&2, Fall 1995/Winter 1996, p 300)