The US State Department’s human rights report for 2021 said there were credible reports that members of the Sri Lanka’s security forces, primarily the police, committed numerous abuses and the Sri Lankan government did not make a significant effort to address the violations.
The annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2021 said the government took minimal steps to identify, investigate, prosecute, and punish officials who committed human rights abuses or corruption, and there was impunity for both.
The US State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor published its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2021 and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday released the report to the public.
The Country Report said there were several reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings and added that during the year there was no significant progress on cases against officials accused of arbitrary, unlawful, or politically motivated killings.
Lack of accountability for conflict-era abuses persisted, particularly regarding government officials, military, paramilitary, police, and other security-sector officials implicated and, in some cases, convicted of killing political opponents, journalists, and private citizens.
Civil society organizations asserted that the government and the courts were reluctant to act against security forces, citing high-level appointments of military officials credibly accused of abuses and pardons of convicted murderers.
While there were no reports of disappearances by or on behalf of government authorities, disappearances during the war and its aftermath remained unresolved.
Although the constitution and law prohibit torture and other cruel practices, authorities reportedly employed them, the 2021 Country Report noted. Interviews by human rights organizations have found that torture and excessive use of force by police, particularly to extract confessions, remained endemic.
Impunity remained a significant problem characterized by a lack of accountability for conflict-era abuses, the report said.
Significant human rights issues documented by the report included credible reports of: unlawful and arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings; torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrest and detention; politically motivated reprisals against individuals in other countries; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary and unlawful interference with privacy; restrictions on free expression and media, including violence and threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests and prosecutions of journalists, and censorship; restrictions on internet freedom; interference with the freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of association, including overly restrictive laws on the organization, funding, or operation of nongovernmental organizations and civil society organizations; restrictions on freedom of movement; serious government corruption; among others