UN urges Sri Lanka to end war crimes impunity

The United Nations rights chief urged Sri Lanka to do more to end what he called entrenched impunity for war crimes and other abuses after the country's decades-long conflict.

A UN rights office report called on Sri Lanka to build on recent steps toward accountability for past violations, including during the 1983-2009 war. UN human rights chief Volker Turk said Sri Lanka still had an opportunity to turn the tide on decades of abuse of executive power, repressive laws, custodial violence and impunity.

Sri Lanka's war, which claimed more than 100,000 lives, ended when government forces defeated Tamil rebels who had fought for an independent state in the north and east.

The UN report noted action under President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who took office in 2024, to tackle corruption. It also welcomed several high-profile arrests and investigations linked to political killings, enforced disappearances and the deadly 2019 Easter Sunday attack.

But the report said Sri Lanka had continued to use the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which it described as repressive, leading to arbitrary arrests and prolonged detention without charge. It urged repeal of the law and the release of all political prisoners.

The report said civil society actors, activists and journalists were facing state surveillance, intimidation and reprisals, and that torture and deaths in custody were continuing. It also criticised failures to investigate and prosecute crimes from the armed conflict.

Successive governments in Colombo have resisted calls to investigate allegations that security forces killed at least 40,000 Tamil civilians in the war's final months. Turk said several recent indictments over a 2006 abduction and murder were welcome but many serious emblematic cases remained stalled for years.