UN human rights report urges robust accountability and institutional reforms

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GENEVA – A UN Human Rights report published today (03-09-2026)calls on the Sri Lankan Government to build on the steps it has taken to bolster accountability for human rights violations and advance reconciliation and healing.

The report, which covers the period between October 2025 and July 2026, notes the steps taken to tackle corruption, as well as the high-profile arrests and investigations in connection with political killings, enforced disappearances and the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks. This was also a period during which Sri Lanka found itself grappling with the challenges caused by Cyclone Ditwah and the global spike in energy prices.

Despite its promise of legal and institutional reforms, however, the Government continues to apply the repressive Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), resulting in arbitrary arrests and prolonged detentions without charge, the report states. Civil society actors, activists and journalists are subjected to state surveillance, and tensions over land and religious sites continue to simmer.

“This Government still has an opportunity to turn the tide on decades of abuse of executive power, repressive laws and custodial violence, and entrenched impunity,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. “While it is encouraging that the Sri Lankan authorities have taken action to address corruption cases and some crimes linked to the post-war period, more needs to be done to end the long legacy of impunity in the country.”

The report highlights continued cases of torture and deaths in custody. The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka documented 602 cases of torture and ill-treatment in 2025 and 138 cases as of April 2026. It also reported receiving 18 cases of deaths in custody last year and another three by April this year. In one such case, a 40-year-old inmate detained for a minor drug-related offence died at Welikada Prison in Colombo on 3 May allegedly from severe beatings.

The report also highlights the violent riots at Negombo prison in July, which resulted in at least 32 deaths, underscoring the urgent need for prison reform to address systemic issues, including severe overcrowding.

The UN Human Rights Office also received at least 16 allegations of surveillance against civil society actors, activists and journalists, information “indicating a clear and continuing pattern of state surveillance, intimidation and reprisals by military and intelligence officials, including from the Criminal Investigations Department or the Terrorism Investigation Division”, says the report.

“Individuals are repeatedly questioned about their travels, especially to Geneva and engagement with UN human rights processes, as well as their organisational affiliations, funding sources, and participation in protests or commemorative events,” the report states.

While the Government has continued to denounce racism and promote national unity, wider efforts to ensure truth and justice risk being stalled and the momentum for transformative change being lost, warns the report.

Failures to effectively investigate and prosecute crimes under international law allegedly committed during the armed conflict persist.

“It is crucial that there is decisive and meaningful action toward accountability for crimes and violations by all parties during the more than two-decade armed conflict,” High Commissioner Türk said.

The UN Human Rights Chief noted the recent decision by the Attorney-General to indict former Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chandrakathan, also known as Pillayan, and three others in connection with the abduction and murder of former Eastern University Vice Chancellor Professor Subramanian Ravindranath in 2006.

“It is, however, regrettable that many other serious emblematic cases remain stalled for years, including the killing of 17 Action Contre La Faim aid workers in Muttur 20 years ago,” he said, calling for meaningful steps to resolve such delays.

The High Commissioner urged Sri Lanka to redouble its reconciliation and accountability efforts. He called for a moratorium on the use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, pending its repeal, as well as the release of long-term detainees held under it.

Türk also called for all individuals credibly accused of human rights violations to be excluded from senior positions in government, the security sector, or diplomatic service, until such allegations are genuinely addressed and resolved.

He urged the Government to support victims’ memorialization initiatives, and the release of military-occupied lands.

To read the full report, click here
https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc6318-sri-lanka-un-human-rights-report-urges-robust-accountability-and

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Sri Lanka: Tepid Progress on Justice for Past Abuses -Human Rights Watch

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(Geneva, September 1, 2026) – The Sri Lankan government’s prosecution of past grave abuses has lagged, raising concerns for future progress, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. United Nations officials and UN member countries at the Human Rights Council should call on the government led by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to show greater determination to address emblematic rights cases and cooperate with international accountability efforts.

The 49-page report, “‘Not Genuine with Justice’: Sri Lanka’s Lack of Will to Prosecute Past Abuses,” provides an overview of domestic justice efforts in seven prominent cases of grave abuses in which the Dissanayake government has made a measure of progress since taking office in 2024. Human Rights Watch found that many emblematic cases, including a massacre of aid workers, the targeting of journalists, and enforced disappearances of academics and others, remain stalled, while families of victims and human rights defenders face threats and intimidation.

“The Dissanayake administration needs to break from past government practice of delaying and denying justice for grave abuses,” said Lucy McKernan, UN Human Rights Council director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Human Rights Council should urge the Sri Lankan government to take credible steps toward accountability for past crimes and end reprisals against victims, their families, and human rights defenders.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 32 victims of abuses, family members of the disappeared, and lawyers and other human rights defenders, and extensively reviewed court documents and other sources.

Tens of thousands of people were tortured, forcibly disappeared, abducted, and killed by government security forces and nonstate armed groups during Sri Lanka’s 1987-1989 Marxist insurgency in the south and the civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in 2009.

Sri Lanka has a legacy of failed attempts at obtaining justice for past abuses. Successive governments have appointed more than 10 commissions since the 1990s to inquire into human rights violations, but none led to prosecutions or revealed what happened to thousands of people who disappeared. Various administrations either made minimal progress on cases or actively intervened to block the few criminal investigations underway.

“Excavations [of mass graves] alone will not provide justice,” said a family member of a disappearance victim in Jaffna. “Will those who are responsible for abuses be held accountable?” Investigators have recovered the remains of 582 people from a mass grave at Chemmani, near Jaffna, but there has been no apparent progress in identifying the victims or finding what happened to them.

The Dissanayake government has made some progress in important investigations that were previously derailed. These include the inquiry into the 2009 murder of a newspaper editor, Lasantha Wickrematunge; the 2010 enforced disappearance of a journalist, Prageeth Ekneligoda; and the enforced disappearance by naval intelligence officers of 11 young men who were held for ransom in 2008 and 2009.

An investigation into an alleged high-level government conspiracy behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed 269 people, was only able to proceed after President Dissanayake took office. In February 2026, police arrested Suresh Sallay, a former military intelligence officer, for colluding with an Islamist group accused of carrying out the attacks. In June, a Sri Lankan court banned former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and two other military intelligence officers from foreign travel in connection with the ongoing investigations into the attacks.

Despite the limited progress, the Dissanayake government has not responded with the needed urgency to end impunity for grave abuses, Human Rights Watch found. There has been no progress in other important cases in which senior officials have been implicated, including the 2006 killing of five Tamil students and the massacre of 17 mostly Tamil members of the French aid group Action Contre la Faim. Twenty years on, no one has been arrested, let alone prosecuted, for these killings.

The Dissanayake government has not accepted the Sri Lanka Accountability Project, established by the UN Human Rights Council to collect evidence of serious rights abuses. It has failed to establish the promised Directorate of Public Prosecution to independently prosecute past abuses.

Instead, it has backed initiatives of previous governments, such as the Office on Missing Persons and the Office for Reparations, which many victims’ families have rejected because they consider them efforts intended to delay justice.

Since the end of the civil war in 2009, the UN has played an important role in promoting justice and accountability while seeking to end ongoing violations. The UN Secretary-General’s 2011 Panel of Experts report and the 2015 investigation on Sri Lanka by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) documented extensive war crimes and other abuses by both sides during the civil war. And the UN Human Rights Council has adopted a series of resolutions seeking accountability.

The UN Human Rights Council and the OHCHR should continue to review the Dissanayake government’s progress on justice and press for action to address decades of impunity, Human Rights Watch said.

“The Dissanayake government should jumpstart its efforts to obtain genuine accountability for the killings and disappearances in the past conflicts,” McKernan said. “The UN high commissioner and UN member states at the Human Rights Council should urge the Dissanayake government to demonstrate its expressed commitment to justice in Sri Lanka.”

15,000 northern homes benefit from Lanka’s first large-scale desalination plant

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For decades, families across the Jaffna peninsula and surrounding islands have relied on wells and rationed pipe schemes for water that was often salty, hard, or unsafe to drink – a daily reality shaped by the region’s thin rainfall and absence of any river or reservoir.

However, this reality changed with the construction of a Sea Water Reverse Osmosis (SWRO) desalination plant at Thalaiyadi, as part of the Jaffna-Kilinochchi Water Supply Project (JKWSP), funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB). It was the first large-scale seawater desalination plant built in Sri Lanka and among the first of its kind that the ADB has financed anywhere as well.

The SWRO desalination plant project treats and purifies seawater into freshwater, providing a reliable source that is independent of the district’s limited and often contaminated groundwater.

The contract was awarded in January 2021 to Suez International, and preliminary work began in March 2021, although feasibility studies and research into alternative water supply mechanisms had been underway for many years prior. The project design and build were completed by September 2024, and by October, operations had already begun.

Under the terms of the contract, Suez International will operate the plant for seven years, transferring full operational control to Sri Lanka’s National Water Supply and Drainage Board (NWSDB) by October 2031.

The SWRO plant was developed under the Jaffna-Kilinochchi Water Supply Project (JKWSP), backed by $210m in ADB funding and $56m in government funding, out of which $15m ADB funds were used to rehabilitating and strengthening the Iranamadu irrigation reservoir as an earlier, complementary component of the water supply strategy from which 55,000 farmers have benefited as well.

Jaffna Peninsula’s chronic water crisis stems from a fundamental hydrological deficit. To put this into perspective, the region gets only 1,200mm of annual rainfall against 1,800mm of potential evaporation, with no rivers or reservoirs, leaving its 600,000 residents dependent on groundwater that can safely yield only 13,000 to 35,000 cubic metres per day against demand exceeding 50,000 cubic metres of water every day.

A 2007 government feasibility study revealed that the groundwater itself was heavily compromised, with nitrate levels from fertiliser and pesticide use, hardness and iron content in 99% of tested wells, and faecal contamination near densely populated areas, including the hospital, all exceeding national drinking water standards.

However, a large portion of this water crisis has been alleviated through the SWRO plant.

Currently, the SWRO plant, located in Thalaiyady, Jaffna, is designed to produce 24,000 cubic metres of clean water per day, equivalent to 24 million litres. However, producing this amount requires extracting at least 50,000 cubic metres of raw seawater.

Out of it, only 24,000 cubic metres are converted into clean drinking water; the remaining volume, now a concentrated brine, is pumped back into the sea in a procedure in accordance with the Central Environment Authority and the Marine Environment Protection Authority standards.

A total number of 15,000 households benefit from the SWRO plant as of now, including hospitals and universities, which has impacted the lives of many in the region positively with twenty elevated tanks completed across the peninsula.

For instance, R. Kavitha, an Advanced-Level student, used to fetch water from a common public well located far away.

However, since the introduction of the SWRO plant, Kavitha no longer has to walk that distance to fetch water, conserving her time and energy.

As a result, with more time on her hands now, Kavitha is able to spend it more productively and earns a living as a tailor, stitching saree jackets to the customers in the neighbourhood.

Murugan Sugandi, a primary school teacher, had to fetch three categories of water separately in three different locations – water for drinking, pipe water, and saline water from wells for other purposes – before the SWRO project.

Drinking water had to be fetched at odd times, between 2 am and 6 am, from a location half a kilometre away from where she lived, as the water would evaporate and the well would go dry after 6 am. In addition to this hurdle, Sugandi and the others like her had to also face the long line of people at the well near the kovil. Now, this laborious chore has ended.

Although currently only 15,000 households are connected to the SWRO, with new connections being added as consumers apply, this is not its full capacity. The target is about 60,000 households.

At the current pace, it is expected to take roughly two to three years to reach the full target number of connections, and the planned coverage area extends from near Kodikamam to the islands off the peninsula, said JKWSP Chief Engineer V. Vijayakanth.

Australia, Singapore, France and U.S. assisted in investigation, says Deputy Solicitor General

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Parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, who was arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption over allegations of accepting a Rs. 100 million bribe in connection with a transaction involving the purchase of Airbus aircraft, has been ordered to be remanded till September 18 by the Colombo Chief Magistrate Asanga S Bodaragama yesterday.

Thereafter, suspect Namal Rajapaksa was produced before the Colombo Chief Magistrate’s Court at around 4.00 p.m. yesterday by officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.

Making submissions before court on behalf of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption, Deputy Solicitor General Janaka Bandara stated that the suspect had been arrested as a result of a joint investigation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption into the controversial Airbus transaction.

“My Lord, with the mutual assistance of Australia, Singapore, France and the United States of America, this investigation has now reached its final stage. The agreement in this transaction had been to obtain a bribe of US$1 million for each aircraft.

In this controversial Airbus transaction, €1.454 million (Euro) had been paid as a bribe by Airbus into an account maintained at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore under the name BIZ Solutions INC, which was solely owned by Priyanga Niyomali Wijenayake, the wife of Kapila Chandrasena, the former Chief Executive Officer of SriLankan Airlines.

From that account, on November 19 and December 22, 2014, money had been deposited on two occasions into an account maintained at OCBC Bank in Singapore in the name of Sabre Vision Holding Ltd, a company chaired by Nimal Perera.

Accordingly, investigation officers recently travelled to Australia in search of Nimal Perera, who is currently residing there, and recorded a statement from him. As he has refused to come to Sri Lanka due to death threats, he has provided an affidavit to officers of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption.

He says that an amount of US$800,000 received from the account maintained under the name BIZ Solutions INC into the account of Sabre Vision Holding Ltd belonging to him was handed over to the suspect Lakshman Namal Rajapaksa, who is being produced before court today. This amounts to Rs.100 million in Sri Lankan currency.

My Lord, the parent company of Airbus has now agreed to assist with any investigation relating to the controversial Airbus transaction. Accordingly, senior officials of Airbus have now visited Sri Lanka on three occasions and have provided four statements. They have also provided a number of documents relating to this transaction to the investigating officers.

Accordingly, information has also been revealed regarding the relationship between Airbus and the suspect. Therefore, the arrest of this suspect was carried out after considering all these circumstances.

As the suspect is alleged to have committed an offence under Sections 17(a), 17(c) and 25 of the Bribery or Corruption Act, read with Section 113 of the Penal Code and as a certificate issued by the Director General of the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption under Section 149 of the Anti-Corruption Act has been submitted against the suspect, I request court to refuse bail to the suspect and remand him.

Appearing for the suspect, President’s counsel Sampath Mendis submitted,

“My Lord, my client has been arrested today and produced before court solely on the basis of a statement made by a person named Nimal Perera. Neither the French officials nor the officials of Airbus have stated that they gave money to him.

Another case involving the said Nimal Perera is currently being heard before the High Court in relation to the ‘Krrish transaction’. In that case too, it is stated that money had been received into an account belonging to a company named Sabre Vision Holding Ltd. However, in that case, Nimal Perera had stated that the account did not belong to him, but belonged to an Italian friend.

Accordingly, Nimal Perera is saying one thing then and another thing today. In 2019, the Criminal Investigation Department did not believe what Nimal Perera said. If so, how can Nimal Perera be believed in 2026?

My Lord, this is what is called the principle of turning even a monitor lizard into a land monitor when one wants to eat. Therefore, I request court to consider this as an exceptional circumstance and grant bail to my client.”

After considering all the submissions, the Magistrate stated,

The suspect has been charged under Section 149 of the Anti-Corruption Act. Therefore, special circumstances must be presented in order for bail to be granted.

As a special circumstance, the President’s Counsel referred to the credibility of the statement made by the suspect. The credibility of the suspect’s statement cannot be determined by this Court through a summary of evidence. The credibility of a witness’s statement can only be considered after the commencement of the trial.

At that stage, when the suspect gives evidence and when the witness is cross-examined, it can be determined whether or not the statement given by the witness is credible.

Accordingly, the credibility of the witness cannot be considered a special circumstance. Since no other special circumstances have been presented, no grounds have been established for granting bail.

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How Namal was nabbed over Airbus bribe charge; Nimal Perera’s sworn affidavit submitted to court

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SLPP MP Namal Rajapaksa, arrested yesterday (04) by the Bribery Commission (CIABOC) after giving it a statement in connection with the purchase of Airbus aircraft for SriLankan Airlines, has been remanded until 18 September.

800,000 USD changed hands

The Commission, together with the CID made a lengthy investigation and reported to Colombo chief magistrate Asanga S. Bodaragama how bribe money given by Airbus Company had been circulated.

Making submissions on behalf of the attorney general, deputy solicitor general (DSG) Janaka Bandadara said the money had first been credited to the account of Biz Solution in Singapore, registered in Brunei and owned by Priyanka Neomali Wijenayake, former SriLankan CEO Kapila Chandrasena’s wife.

From that, 800,000 US dollars had been transferred to an account of a Singaporean company chaired by businessman Nimal Perera who lives in Australia.

As per the exchange rate at the time, money amounting to Rs. 100 million had then been handed over during 2014-15 to Rajapaksa, according to a sworn affidavit handed to CIABOC by Perera, said the DSG.

Perera gave a statement to the investigators in Australia, where he sought refuge reportedly due to threats to his life.

Int’l evidence and email messages

The complaint said the probe, backed by Australia, Singapore, France and the US as well as Airbus company, whose officials visited Sri Lanka four times to testify in addition to handing over the deal’s internal documents, bank reports and email messages, is in its final stage.

Additionally, Rs. 25 million had been credited from the Biz Solution account to an account owned by Shamindra Rajapaksa, a former SriLankan director board member, who is presently in the US.

Argument by defendant & credibility of evidence

Appearing for the MP, president’s counsel Sampath Mendis filed a bail application saying the arrest was based purely on a statement given by Perera, with neither Airbus officials nor French investigators saying Rajapaksa was bribed.

Claiming how Perera made contradictory statements during the Krrish case hearing, the lawyer said it was unfair to remand his client based solely on a statement given by a person rejected by the CID in 2019.

He asked that Rajapaksa be released on any bail condition.

Magistrate’s order

After considering the submissions, the magistrate said that in light of the CIABOC’s director-general’s statement being not challenged, bail can be given under exceptional circumstances only.

The credibility of a witness could be determined by way of cross-examining at a court hearing only, he said, ordering the remanding of the suspect.

The CIABOC was ordered to submit a brief of statements given by Airbus officials at the next hearing.

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US–Sri Lanka operation disrupts Pakistan drug network

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The U.S. Embassy in Sri Lanka says a joint counternarcotics operation has disrupted a Pakistan‑based trafficking network attempting to move crystal methamphetamine through Sri Lanka to international markets.

The Embassy said in a statement that acting on intelligence developed between August 14–29 by the DEA’s Foreign Counterparts Unit and Pakistan’s Anti‑Narcotics Force Special Investigations Cell, Sri Lanka’s Police Narcotics Bureau (PNB) intercepted suspicious maritime containers arriving from Pakistan.

The seizure yielded approximately 463 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, concealed in bath towels, with an estimated street value of $21 million. Several suspects, including Pakistani nationals, were taken into custody.

The US Embassy stressed that the operation underscores the strength of the US–Sri Lanka partnership in dismantling transnational criminal organizations that fund terrorism and threaten communities in both countries.

It further noted that this cooperation builds on longstanding training and technical assistance provided through the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) to Sri Lanka Police and Customs.

The United States reaffirmed its commitment to working with Sri Lanka and regional partners to aggressively pursue transnational criminal organizations, deny them revenue from illicit drug trafficking, and protect citizens from the dangers of narcotics.

Mattala deal by mid-2027?

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The process of evaluating proposals to determine the future operator of the Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport (MRIA) is currently underway, and the entire process is expected to be finalised by the middle of next year, Deputy Civil Aviation Minister Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku said.

Speaking to The Daily Morning, he said the Government is currently evaluating the proposals submitted by parties interested in taking part in the operation of the MRIA. “We are currently carrying out the evaluations. We hope that we will be able to finalise this whole process by mid next year. By that time, we will be able to form a new operational model,” he said.

It was reported earlier the Government is considering whether to hand over the operation of the Hambantota-based Airport to a single investor or divide different aspects of its operations among several parties, depending on which arrangement would provide the greatest benefit to the country. Nineteen parties had submitted expressions of interest (EOIs), and the next stage was to issue requests for proposals to those parties. The Government called for EOIs earlier this year (2026) as part of its effort to find a joint venture partner or partners to operate the MRIA and improve its financial performance. The move came after years of low passenger numbers and high operating and maintenance costs at the Airport.

Kodiththuwakku had previously told The Daily Morning that the MRIA had not generated the returns expected since it was established and continued to incur annual losses of around Rs 3 billion, a figure roughly equivalent to its operating costs. He said the Government had first focused on restoring the Airport to a condition in which it could operate safely, but that the priority had now shifted towards making the facility commercially viable.

Located in Hambantota, the MRIA was built with the intention of supporting regional development and easing pressure on the Bandaranaike International Airport, Katunayake. However, its low passenger volumes and the cost of maintaining the facility have made its future operation a longstanding issue for successive Governments.

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UN Working Group representative joins families of disappeared at Jaffna exhibition

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A visiting representative of the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) has joined families of disappeared persons from the north and east at an exhibition displaying personal belongings and memorabilia of their missing relatives.

Ana Lorena Delgadillo Pérez of the WGEID and Yogarasa Kanagaranjini, head of the Association of Relatives of Enforced Disappearances (ARED), opened the “Long Road for Justice” exhibition at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna on Sunday (30), marking the International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances.

Hundreds of families searching for relatives who have been missing for more than 17 years attended the exhibition, with some becoming emotional while viewing belongings once cherished by their missing family members.

“No mother should die without knowing where her disappeared child is,” Delgadillo Pérez said.

She said the families’ search for answers would continue as long as the fate and whereabouts of victims remained unknown.

“As long as the victims’ fate and whereabouts remain unknown and their families continue to seek answers, the crime continues and so do the obligations of the state and the international community to act,” she said.

The visiting WGEID representative is scheduled to visit several areas in the north and east, including locations of discovered mass graves and military camps.

Her findings are expected to be included in the WGEID’s annual report on enforced disappearances and militarization.

Over 250-strong Japanese delegation arrives in Sri Lanka

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Sri Lanka yesterday welcomed its largest-ever privately organised Japanese visitor delegation, as over 250 travellers arrived in Colombo through the Little Japan initiative, in what organisers are calling a landmark moment for tourism and bilateral cooperation between the two nations.

The arrival marks the culmination of months of planning under the campaign banner “Japan Returns to Sri Lanka,” and is being positioned as a defining moment in the renewal of people-to-people, cultural and commercial ties between Japan and Sri Lanka.

Organisers say the scale of the delegation reflects growing confidence among Japanese travellers and businesses in Sri Lanka as a destination, and opens the door to further collaboration across tourism, trade and investment in the months ahead.

The Japanese Delegation Tour Leader Arai Koyo (Sam San) said: “Sri Lanka has a warmth and richness that is increasingly hard to find, and it is drawing serious attention from Japan. Beyond its beauty, we see a country ready to build genuine, long-term partnerships with Japanese businesses and travellers alike. Bringing a delegation of this size here is our way of showing that interest is real, and we look forward to seeing where this relationship goes from here.”

The delegation was brought together through Little Japan, a platform founded by Colombo International Airport Hotel Chairman and Little Japan Founder Dr. Ruwan Perera to connect Japanese visitors, businesses and institutions with Sri Lankan destinations, enterprises and communities. Dr. Perera lived and worked in Japan for several years, giving him a first-hand understanding of the Japanese market, and has built Little Japan into one of the leading private platforms driving Japan-Sri Lanka engagement, growing from a 45-member business delegation in 2024 to today’s over 250 strong visitor group.

The arrival was also marked by the presence of Aviation Deputy Minister Janitha Ruwan Kodithuwakku underscoring the national significance of the visit and the Government’s support for deepening tourism links between the two countries. The Deputy Minister also acknowledged Dr. Ruwan Perera’s efforts in driving the Little Japan initiative, describing it as a valuable contribution to strengthening ties between Sri Lanka and Japan.

Dr. Ruwan Perera said: “A delegation of this size does not come together by chance, it reflects years of relationship-building between Little Japan and our partners in Japan. Our focus now shifts to what comes after this visit: translating this goodwill into concrete tourism and business outcomes for both countries.”

Colombo International Airport Hotel, a Japanese-supported hospitality investment near Bandaranaike International Airport, hosted the delegation’s arrival and is serving as its gateway throughout the visit, underscoring the hotel’s role in welcoming large-scale international groups and business travellers to Sri Lanka.

The delegation’s arrival was marked at a press conference held today, where representatives from Little Japan and Colombo International Airport Hotel outlined the significance of the visit and the opportunities it is expected to create for deeper tourism, trade and cultural exchange between Japan and Sri Lanka in the years ahead.

India-Sri Lanka Foundation approves 13 projects worth Rs. 21 million

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The India-Sri Lanka Foundation (ISLF) has approved 13 projects worth about Rs. 21 million aimed at strengthening cooperation between the two countries in areas including education, culture, agriculture, science and technology.

The projects were approved at the foundation’s 41st Board of Directors meeting in New Delhi on Aug. 28, co-chaired by Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Mahishini Colonne and Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Santosh Jha.

More than 500 project proposals were received by the Colombo Secretariat, of which 137 were shortlisted following a vetting process. Twenty proposals were submitted to the board for consideration, with 13 receiving approval.

The board also noted increased public interest in the foundation’s activities in both countries. The New Delhi Secretariat received 149 proposals from Indian nationals despite not issuing a formal call for proposals ahead of the meeting because of financial constraints.

Against this backdrop, the board highlighted the need to strengthen the foundation’s financial capacity, saying an expanded Corpus Fund would allow it to support more initiatives and provide additional opportunities for people-to-people exchanges between Sri Lanka and India.

Established in 1998 through an agreement between the two governments, the foundation promotes bilateral ties through economic, scientific, educational, technical and cultural cooperation and supports exchanges involving students, academics, researchers, professionals and artists.

The meeting was also attended by board members Prasad Kariyawasam, Mohan Kumar and Ashok Malik