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Continued UNHRC scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s human rights record crucial: HRW

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The United Nations Human Rights Council should maintain its rigorous scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s worsening human rights situation and press for genuine improvements, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

They further said: “At the Council’s upcoming session, which begins on September 13, 2021, UN member countries should express their alarm about the ongoing abuses by the government of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the weakening of independent governmental institutions, civilian governance, and the rule of law. These countries should demonstrate their willingness to press the Sri Lankan government to meet its international human rights obligations,” they said.

“Since Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in 2019, the limited progress Sri Lanka had made in addressing past atrocities and ending abuses has been disastrously reversed,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

“Continued international attention and pressure can help reduce the risks faced by minority communities, activists, and journalists, who live in heightened fear of the authorities”.

“Earlier in 2021, the Human Rights Council adopted an important resolution, 46/1, to advance accountability for past rights violations and war crimes committed in Sri Lanka. The resolution also mandated regular reporting by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2020, the Rajapaksa administration had renounced the previous administration’s commitments to the Human Rights Council to provide justice and end abuses.”

“The administration is using its security and intelligence agencies to check and intimidate the families of abuse victims and others who are seeking to uphold human rights. When we talk to the families of the ‘disappeared,’they say they can be arrested at any time,” a human rights defender in northern Sri Lanka told Human Rights Watch. “That they can arrest you for anything.”

“The authorities are using arrests and threats issued under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) to silence calls for justice in the Tamil majority North and East, and to arbitrarily detain Muslims in counter-terrorism operations. In August, Inspector General of Police C.D. Wickramaratne said that 311 people were in custody for the deadly 2019 Easter bombings, many of them for over two years. However, no one has yet been brought to trial in connection with the attacks,” Human Rights Watch said.

“President Rajapaksa issued an ordinance under the PTA this year that allows for two years in detention without trial for the “rehabilitation” of people accused of causing “disharmony,” and another that creates a new PTA detention center at a notorious police facility in Colombo that would permit even more abuse under the terrorism law. These actions contradict the government’s claim to foreign diplomats that it was preparing to reform the PTA, which has been used to facilitate the arbitrary detention and torture of prisoners since its introduction in 1979.

Under the PTA, a prisoner can be held for up to 18 months without being produced in court. A newly formed “advisory board” of three presidential appointees to review pretrial detention orders under this law offers no credible legal protection against abuses”, Human Rights Watch said.

“The police Terrorism Investigation Division (TID) has been used to stifle civil society. They regularly visit the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) and talk about the financial reports and staff lists and phone numbers,” an activist in the east, who described the visits as a method of surveillance and intimidation, told Human Rights Watch. “The TID visits NGOs regularly. It’s kind of routine.”

“An amendment to the constitution in 2020 undermined the independence of the judiciary by empowering the president to appoint senior judges. The amendment also undercut the independence of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, the status of which is now under review by the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions. Recent appointments to the Office of Missing Persons, which is supposed to discover what happened to thousands of victims of enforced disappearance over several decades, have further undermined its credibility. The appointees include a former Inspector General of Police accused of destroying evidence in the murder of a journalist.

A presidential commission established in January 2020 to examine supposed cases of “political victimization” has recommended halting investigations or prosecutions in the few cases of serious abuses where there had been limited progress, and instead opening investigations against police investigators for allegedly falsifying evidence.” Human Rights Watch said.

“In August 2021, the Attorney General dropped charges against a former commander of the Navy implicated in the enforced disappearance of 11 men and boys between 2008 and 2009. Senior Superintendent of Police Shani Abeysekera, who led that and other major human rights investigations, received death threats and was imprisoned for a year and half, until the Court of Appeal found that the case against him was “fabricated.” Meanwhile, the government has sought to persuade diplomats at the Human Rights Council that an accountability process still exists, by referring to a separate presidential commission established by President Rajapaksa in January with a mandate to reexamine the reports of the numerous previous domestic commissions “to ascertain whether there have been violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law,” and whether previous recommendations had been implemented, ” Human Rights Watch said.

“On August 31, the Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry circulated a document to foreign diplomats in which the government claims, without basis, to have made “continued and tangible progress … in addressing issues related to achieving peace, reconciliation, and development, including accountability, within the domestic legal framework of Sri Lanka.”

They further said: “In fact, the government’s approach has been to emphasize “compensation” to victims over justice and accountability, as Justice Minister Ali Sabry said at an event organized by the Office of Missing Persons on August 31. The Foreign Ministry claims that these payments – about US$500 each in cases in which the victim died – will help bring “closure” and “reconciliation.”

“Far from promoting reconciliation, the government has repeatedly adopted policies that alienate Sri Lanka’s beleaguered minority communities. Tamils and Muslims in the North and East have complained of a concerted government policy to seize land belonging to members of their communities on various pretexts, including by a presidential task force on archaeology composed of Buddhist monks and members of the security forces.

Foreign governments should take firm and coordinated action to press the Sri Lankan government to reverse course”, Human Rights Watch said.

“The European Union should insist that Sri Lanka complies with its human rights obligations to maintain tariff free market access under GSP+, as should the United Kingdom under its similar program. Donor governments and multilateral agencies, such as the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, should immediately withhold support for Sri Lankan security forces until they take steps to halt and address violations, in compliance with UN due diligence standards.”

“Governments should also consider imposing targeted sanctions on senior figures implicated in grave abuses, and pursue prosecutions under universal jurisdiction, as recommended by the UN human rights chief, Michele Bachelet, earlier this year.”

“No one should be in any doubt that Sri Lanka’s human rights situation is deeply alarming and getting worse,” said. “UN member states should recognize that the government is sensitive to international pressure, and make the protection of human rights in Sri Lanka their priority,” Ganguly said.


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Easter Sunday carnage: WR asks AG to question Dappula on ‘grand conspiracy’ claim

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2026/06/16

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Former Justice Minister Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, PC, yesterday urged the Department (CID) to question former Attorney General Dappula de Livera, PC, regarding his claim that the 2019 Easter Sunday carnage was a grand conspiracy.

Dr. Rajapakshe, a former President of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, pointed out that the former Director of the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) and the ex-head of State Intelligence Service (SIS) had been arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations levelled by a fugitive from the Sri Lankan law that Gen. Sallay masterminded the Easter Sunday carnage.

The CID arrested Sallay on February 25, 2026, at Peliyagoda.

Attorney General Parinda Ranasinghe, (Jnr), PC, could not under any circumstances further delay seeking an opportunity for the CID to question de Livera. The ex-Minister said so yesterday (15) when The Island sought his explanation regarding the claim he made in Kandy on Sunday that de Livera alleged a grand conspiracy after the then President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declined to grant him a one-year extension.

Ex-parliamentarian Rajapakshe quoted President Rajapaksa as having told him that de Livera was told of his inability to grant the outgoing AG’s request. However, the then government offered him the opportunity to serve as Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner in Canada. He declined that offer.

Responding to The Island queries, Rajapakshe said that though de Livera succeeded in thwarting the Terrorist Investigation Department (TID) from questioning him over his claim made on the eve of his retirement, in May, 2021. According to him, when a major controversy erupted over De Livera’s claim, the TID had been sent to record his statement.

Having evaded the police and successfully moved the Court of Appeal against the TID, the former AG sent a lawyer to the TID on his behalf. That lawyer declared that a seven-paged legal objection to the matter in question has been submitted to the TID.

“Archbishop of Colombo Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith and all those who had been demanding justice for Easter Sunday victims should urge AG Parinda Ranasinghe (Junior), PC to record de Livera’s statement. The ex-Minister said that the Leader of the House, Minister Bimal Ratnayake, disclosed that SSP Shanie Abeysekera and Senior DIG Ravi Seneviratne had been appointed Director, CID and Secretary to the Public Security Ministry, respectively, on the Cardinal’s advice. Therefore, the Cardinal should stress the urgent need to record the former AG’s statement.

Dappula de Livera received his appointment on 10 May, 2019, just weeks after the Easter Sunday carnage, and retired on 25 May, 2025.

On the eve of his retirement, alleging that there had been a grand conspiracy, de Livera said that the information by the SIS with times, targets, places, method of attacks and other information proved the conspiracy. He said that the identities of those involved in the grand conspiracy must come by the way of evidence.

Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe said that investigations into the Easter Sunday carnage couldn’t be brought to a successful conclusion until de Livera revealed what he knew about the grand conspiracy, mastermind or whatever various interested parties chose to call the attacks.

The government sent a CID team to Paris to record a statement of Azad Moulana, a fugitive seeking asylum in Switzerland and who implicated Sallay in the Easter Sunday attacks. “This matter is so serious de Livera must consider volunteering to assist the investigation,” ex-lawmaker Rajapakshe said, challenging all those genuinely concerned about the inordinate delay in bringing the high profile investigation into a conclusion to push for immediate questioning of de Livera.

Having spearheaded the Easter Sunday investigation at the onset of the probe, de Livera could shed light on the alleged conspiracy if he really meant his declaration on the eve of his retirement, Dr. Rajapakshe said.

By Shamindra Ferdinando

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Beijing Capital Airlines to resume flights to Colombo signalling boost to tourism

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6 hours ago

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2026/06/16

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Beijing Capital Airlines to resume direct flights between Beijing and Colombo in September this year, restoring an important air link and strengthening tourism, business, and people-to-people connectivity. This service will complement the existing 23 weekly flights between Mainland China and Colombo.

This was announced at Sri Lanka tourism briefing and networking reception held recently in Beijing. Sri Lanka embassy in Beijing with the support of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau (SLTPB) held the event that brought together over 120 representatives from China’s travel trade, media organizations, tourism-related investment sector, airlines, content creation industry, and Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions (MICE) sector.

Among the participants were representatives of leading Chinese travel companies and media organisations, including China Tourism Group Travel Services Corporation Limited, China International Travel Service (CITS), China Youth Travel Service (CYTS), Spring Tour, Mafengwo, Xinhua News Agency, People’s Daily, Global Times, Guangming Online, and China Times, together with representatives of SriLankan Airlines and Beijing Capital Airlines.

The event, led by Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM), Poornima Gunasekera marked the resumption of the Embassy’s direct engagement with China’s travel trade and media community after a considerable period and provided a platform to outline new initiatives aimed at strengthening tourism cooperation between Sri Lanka and China ahead of the 70th Anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2027.

In her keynote address, the DCM highlighted the longstanding historical ties between Sri Lanka and China, dating back more than 2,000 years through the ancient Maritime Silk Route, and stressed tourism as a key channel for deepening people-to-people exchanges. She noted Sri Lanka’s strong tourism recovery, with over two million international arrivals in 2025, and reaffirmed the country’s image as a safe, peaceful, and welcoming destination. She also highlighted the Government’s expanded visa-free entry programme covering 40 countries, including China, designed to make travel easier and more convenient.

She emphasised Sri Lanka’s unique tourism offering, which combines exceptional diversity within a compact geographical area. Within just 65,610 square kilometres—about four times the size of Beijing—visitors can experience beaches, UNESCO World Heritage Sites, wildlife safaris, tea country, wellness tourism, adventure activities, cultural heritage, gemstones, and authentic Sri Lankan hospitality. She also underlined improved connectivity, noting that a direct flight from Beijing to Colombo takes around seven hours, making Sri Lanka a convenient option for Chinese travellers within broader Asian travel itineraries.

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Delegation of UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture here amidst protests against new anti-terrorism law

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6 hours ago

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2026/06/16

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Aisha Shujune

A delegation of the United Nations Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) is in Colombo. The SPT’s second visit, from 15 to 24 June 2026, takes place amidst the ongoing debate over the NPP government’s decision to bring in a new anti-terrorism law in place of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) enacted in 1979.

Some political parties, and civil society groups, have criticised the NPP move as the ruling party, during the presidential and parliamentary polls campaigns, promised to abolish the PTA.

The SPT conducted its first visit to Sri Lanka in April 2019, following Sri Lanka’s accession to the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) in December 2017. Upon accession, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) was designated as the National Preventive Mechanism (NPM), under OPCAT, by the Government of Sri Lanka.

The Foreign Ministry said that the four-member SPT delegation was scheduled to hold meetings at ministerial level, and engage with senior officials of relevant ministries, departments and institutions. The delegation would also meet representatives of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka and members of civil society, the ministry said.

“The Government of Sri Lanka will engage with the Subcommittee in an open, constructive, and transparent manner, consistent with its policy of continued engagement with the United Nations, and in fulfilment of its Treaty Body obligations undertaken voluntarily and enshrined in relevant international instruments, in accordance with the Constitution.

The delegation will comprise Ms. Aisha Shujune Muhammad (Maldives) (Head of delegation); Jakub Julian Czepek (Poland); Ms. Anica Tomsic (Croatia); and Nika Kvaratskhelia (Georgia). They will be accompanied by officials of the SPT Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.”

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