UN High Commissioner’s Report On Sri Lanka – OpEd

As expected, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner's - HCHR - report on Sri Lanka (A/HRC/57/19) was released on 22 August. It consists of seven pages and sixty-eight paragraphs critical of Sri Lanka.

This report will be submitted to the Human Rights Council – HRC on September 9, the first day of the 57th session. The core group on Sri Lanka in the HRC – United Kingdom, USA, Canada, Montenegro, Malawi, and North Macedonia - will commence their difficult task work towards a resolution on Sri Lanka. Following consultations on the final draft if necessary, it will go for voting in the HRC, mostly likely during the 1st week of October.

Summary and excerpts of this report are given below:

The report says the President has been meeting Tamil Parliamentarians regularly regarding the Sub-Committee for Reconciliation, and these efforts are said to be a step in the right direction. The HCHR request the Government publicise the outcomes of these deliberations and the agreed timeline to resolve the issues these meetings identified.

The report covers developments from resolution 51/1 in October 2022 until July 2024 but also references events in previous years where appropriate.

Sri Lanka underwent its fourth cycle of Universal Periodic Review - UPR in February 2023. In July 2023, it accepted 173 out of 294 recommendations.

The popular demands by the mass protest movement in 2022 for democratic reforms and accountability for corruption and economic mismanagement remain largely unfulfilled. Long overdue reforms to advance human rights and reconciliation have yet to occur, especially in institutional and security sectors.

Since 2023, the Government has introduced an array of new or proposed laws that give broad powers to the security forces and significantly expand pre-existing restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion, and association.

Paragraph thirteen states: For years, UN human rights experts, the Office of the HCHR - OHCHR as well as national and international organizations have expressed concerns about various repressive laws, such as the PTA and the Bureau of Rehabilitation Act, and misuse of the ICCPR Act, which are often used to arrest, detain and prosecute journalists and human rights defenders. In May 2023, Natasha Edirisooriya, a female stand-up comedian was remanded under section 3 of the ICCPR Act for allegedly "insulting Buddhism"; a Magistrate's Court dismissed the case on 19 June 2024.

Paragraph fifteen states: Despite promises of a de facto moratorium on uses of the PTA, the authorities have continued to use it to arrest and detain people, including Tamils commemorating their relatives who died in the civil war.

OHCHR received cases of....

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka - HRCSL, however, reported that the authorities notified it of 46 cases of arrests and detentions under the PTA between January 2023 and April 2024. The OHCHR also received reports of at least 12 cases in which the PTA was used to detain persons, – primarily those participating or involved in organizing memorial activities......

In November 2023, the Supreme Court found over 30 clauses in the Online Safety Bill, inconsistent with the Sri Lankan Constitution. On 24 January 2024, Parliament nevertheless passed the law without incorporating several amendments required by the Supreme Court.

In June 2024, when the Supreme Court ruled that the enactment of the 'Gender Equality' Bill was inconsistent with the Constitution, the President attacked the Court in Parliament potentially triggering a fundamental constitutional conflict between the three branches of government and risking the independence of the judiciary.

Paragraphs twenty-one and twenty-two state: Over the reporting period, OHCHR observed a persistent trend of surveillance, intimidation as well as harassment of journalists and civil society actors, especially those working on enforced disappearances, land seizures, environmental issues, and with former combatants in Sri Lanka's north and east. Journalists in these regions face abusive lawsuits, violence, intimidation, and surveillance. For instance, in October 2023, journalists Punniyamoorthy Sasikaran and Valasingham Krishnakumar were questioned after covering a protest about state-supported land seizures.

During the reporting period, OHCHR received six reported cases of intimidation, surveillance, and reprisals against family members of the disappeared engaging with the UN or international actors, including members of the diplomatic community. Female victims in particular reported receiving late-night calls from individuals claiming to be CID or TID personnel, who questioned them about their participation in protests and visits to Colombo or Geneva, including funding and individuals they had met.

Paragraphs twenty-seven states: Torture and ill-treatment by police and security forces remain prevalent in Sri Lanka. In April 2023, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that it was "deeply concerned about the widespread practice of torture and ill-treatment by police and security forces in places of detention, which has resulted in deaths in custody". The HRSCL informed OHCHR that it received 2,845 cases of torture and 675 complaints of degrading treatment between January 2023 and March 2024. The HRCSL reported that between January 2023 and March 2024, it received 21 cases of extrajudicial killings; 26 cases of deaths in custody, and 1,342 complaints of arbitrary arrests and detentions.

Widespread torture

Paragraph twenty-nine states: Many of the interviewees also reported experiencing sexual torture, including rape, squeezing testicles, forced nudity and biting of breasts, either during interrogation or in the holding cell.

Paragraph twenty-nine states: Many of the interviewees also reported experiencing sexual torture, including rape, squeezing testicles, forced nudity and biting of breasts, either during interrogation or in the holding cell.

To date, the Government has rarely even acknowledged the serious violations that occurred in the conflict or provided victims with adequate redress. Numerous commissions of inquiry appointed by successive governments, often in response to international pressure, have failed credibly to establish truth and advance accountability and reconciliation.

The Office on Missing Persons - OMP further stated that out of 5,791 complaints from 'phase I' (2000-2021 period) reviewed so far, 1,058 were associated with the military forces or LTTE, of which 397 cases had been the subject of further action, including 50 files forwarded to the CID for further verification.

Impunity

The unwillingness or inability of the State to prosecute and punish perpetrators of crimes is best illustrated by the lack of meaningful progress in emblematic cases.

Paragraph forty-five states: OHCHR reports, such as the 2006 massacres of 17 humanitarian workers in Muttur, the killings of five Trincomalee Tamil students in 2006, the murder of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge in 2009, and the disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda in 2010 have faced prolonged delays and setbacks during the investigation stages. Others have been the subject of interference, acquittals or charges being dropped. For instance, in the assassination of Tamil MP Joseph Pararajasingham in 2005, at a Christmas church service in full view of witnesses, the AG informed the court that he would not proceed with the prosecution.

Paragraph forty-seven states: There has been limited progress in the criminal investigation into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings.

Further, Major General (retired) Kamal Gunaratne continues to serve as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence (since November 2019), despite having been credibly alleged to have committed grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law during the armed conflict.

Paragraph fifty-four states: The international legal system offers further opportunities, including through the inter-State complaint mechanisms of treaty bodies, and/or consideration of proceedings before the International Court of Justice, where provided for by relevant human rights treaties. Efforts have been undertaken by civil society organisations - CSOs to request the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court - ICC, to the extent possible, to exercise jurisdiction over relevant crimes committed in Sri Lanka. The Rome Statute provides opportunities for States to activate the ICC's jurisdiction, including through the UN Security Council formally referring a situation to it.

Paragraph fifty-six states: As of 5 July 2024, the repository established by OHCHR's project comprises 96,215 items and contains over 470 different sources, including information provided by more than 220 witnesses and 250 organisations, including international and multilateral organisations.

Conclusions and recommendations

Following the elections, the newly elected Government should - as a matter of urgency – pursue an inclusive national vision for Sri Lanka that addresses the root causes of the conflict and undertakes fundamental constitutional and institutional reforms needed to strengthen democracy and devolution of political authority and advance accountability and reconciliation.

• Repeal or amend existing laws or proposed laws that unduly restrict the rights to freedom of opinion and expression, association, and peaceful assembly, including the Online Safety Act, ICCPR Act, draft NGO Bill, and proposed amendment to Telecommunications Act;

• Publicly issue unequivocal instructions to all branches of the military, intelligence, as well as police forces that arbitrary arrests, extrajudicial killings, torture, sexual violence and other human rights violations are prohibited and will be systematically investigated and punished;

• Establish as a matter of urgency an independent prosecutorial authority, separate from the AG's function, to assess relevant information and make independent prosecutorial decisions, including to the cases of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law committed in previous decades;

• Avoid military involvement in law enforcement, commercial and civil affairs and significantly reduce military presence in the Northern and Eastern Provinces;

• Order all security agencies and intelligence to immediately end all forms of surveillance and harassment of and reprisals against human rights defenders, journalists, victims of human rights violations and their families, especially women;

• Consider using other international legal options to advance accountability in Sri Lanka.

(Excerpts)