We thank the Special Rapporteur for presenting the much-awaited report on Sri Lanka. To supplement the information in the report, we wish to highlight a series of recent key developments in the country’s transitional justice process.
Since the election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa in November 2019, the Sri Lankan government has adopted policies directly at odds with the recommendations contained in your report. In February and July this year, we drew this Council’s attention to the promotion of several military officers who, according to the findings of various UN investigations, may bear criminal responsibility for crimes under international law; to the establishment of a Commission of Inquiry into alleged “political victimisation” of those accused of serious human rights violations; and to the assignment of the Ministry of Defence as the oversight body for NGOs as a function under the State Minister of Internal Security, Home Affairs and Disaster Management with the special priority to regulate non-NGOs , among others concerns.