The United Nations Human Rights Office’s report on Sri Lanka details entrenched and systemic rights violations—including arbitrary detention, torture, and deaths in custody—under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Human Rights Watch said.
The new report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, also describes the misuse of draconian laws to silence families and activists campaigning for justice and says that continued international engagement through the UN Human Rights Council is “essential.”
The Human Rights Council should renew existing UN mandates on Sri Lanka at its 60th session, which begins September 8, 2025. Amid near-complete impunity for past atrocities and ongoing violations against members of minority communities in Sri Lanka, the council over the years has adopted a series of resolutions stemming from the widespread abuses linked to the 1983-2009 civil war between the government and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. Since 2021, the council has mandated regular UN reporting on human rights in Sri Lanka and established the UN Sri Lanka Accountability Project to collect, analyze, and preserve information and evidence of serious crimes to support future prosecutions.
“President Dissanayake’s election campaign pledges to deliver justice have resulted in few real changes,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Human Rights Council should take note of the human rights chief’s finding of enduring security agency abuses and take action.”
During his 2024 election campaign, Dissanayake pledged to repeal the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), which enables torture and prolonged arbitrary detention; amend the Online Safety Act, which threatens freedom of expression; and establish an independent public prosecutor to promote accountability. The government failed to implement these pledges, and instead the high commissioner found that “the structural conditions that led to past violations persist.”
The continued use of the counterterrorism law is particularly concerning. The high commissioner reported increased use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, from 38 cases in all of 2024 to 49 during the first five months of 2025. The law is typically used against members of the Tamil and Muslim communities. The high commissioner also describes “routine use of torture and other forms of ill-treatment” and multiple cases of deaths in police custody, as well as “a lack of effective investigation into these cases.” The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka told Human Rights Watch in July that it reviewed 736 torture complaints last year.
The high commissioner found that “the surveillance apparatus, especially in the north and east, has remained largely intact, with minimal oversight or direction from the central government,” leading to continued patterns of “intimidation and harassment of families of the disappeared, community leaders, civil society actors, especially those working on accountability for enforced disappearances.” Among those targeted are families of victims who have engaged with the Human Rights Council.
The government continues to suppress the activities of nongovernmental organizations and human rights activists. Many groups face limitations on their funding, while officers from the Terrorism Investigation Division often summon activists for questioning or visit their homes or offices.
The report emphasized the importance of justice for victims of the civil war as well as the thousands of victims of enforced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial killing during the 1987-1989 uprising in southern Sri Lanka by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front or JVP), the formerly militant leftist party that is now the largest constituent of the Dissanayake government. The high commissioner reported that about 20 mass graves have been discovered in Sri Lanka, of which five are currently being investigated. The government should seek international support to ensure sufficient financial, human, and technical resources to ensure preservation and conduct exhumations in line with international standards, Human Rights Watch said.
However, numerous emblematic cases illustrate the “unwillingness or inability of the State to prosecute and punish alleged perpetrators,” according to the high commissioner. Regarding the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings of churches and hotels that killed over 250 people, the high commissioner noted that successive governments “have failed to provide a comprehensive account of the circumstances that enabled those attacks, particularly regarding the role of the security establishment.”
The high commissioner noted that since Dissanayake took office last September, the authorities have made some progress in pursuing corruption cases but, like preceding governments, have failed to acknowledge the government’s responsibility for abuses, particularly the role of the military and other security forces in serious international crimes. In particular, survivors of conflict-related sexual violence experience “fear of retaliation, social stigma, and lack of trust in justice mechanisms.”
Ongoing abuses highlight the importance of continued Human Rights Council support for the UN Sri Lanka Accountability Project, as well as the UN’s ongoing monitoring and reporting, Human Rights Watch said. The council should call on the government to end the surveillance and harassment of victims’ families and human rights activists and impose a moratorium on the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
“After a year in office, President Dissanayake has not significantly improved Sri Lanka’s terrible human rights record,” Ganguly said. “Continuing engagement by the Human Rights Council and renewal of the accountability project is crucial so long as the government fails in its obligation to respect and protect the rights of all Sri Lankans.”
