Human Rights Watch (HRW) expressed concern on Friday over accusations of human rights abuses in Sri Lanka, stating that a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office highlights the need for accountability.

HRW specifically urged the UN Human Rights Council to take action to protect human rights in the country, including by supporting the UN Sri Lanka Accountability Project, and especially demanded the protection of victims’ families and human rights activists in the country. HRW’s deputy Asia director, Meenakshi Ganguly, emphasized: “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.”

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk recently published a report detailing several cases in Sri Lanka involving custodial deaths, allegedly resulting from torture or ill-treatment, that he said were not investigated effectively. Türk additionally warned of arbitrary arrests during drug raids. The high commissioner observed patterns of surveillance and harassment of human rights defenders, civil society actors, and families of the disappeared. His report further emphasized the importance of transitional justice for victims of enforced disappearance, torture, and extrajudicial killing during the 1987-1989 uprising by the left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna.

The report additionally noted that, despite President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s election pledge to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), amend the Online Safety Act, and establish an independent public prosecutor to promote accountability, the government has failed to implement these pledges. Türk thus stated that “the structural conditions that led to past violations persist” under the current leadership.

Türk urged the government to repeal or amend laws that restrict fundamental human rights, accelerate investigations into emblematic cases of human rights violations, and publish reports of human rights-related commissions of inquiry.

Sri Lanka, known as the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” experienced both economic and political turmoil in 2022. Since the formation of the new government led by President Dissanayake in 2024, the country renewed its opportunity for transitional justice with its pledge to introduce various reforms to address longstanding human rights concerns and ensure accountability for the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks and other emblematic cases.

In July, excavations at a mass grave site in northern Sri Lanka uncovered over 100 skeletal remains, including those of children and infants. The International Commission of Jurists stated that the country “has one of the highest numbers of cases of unresolved enforced disappearances worldwide, with estimates ranging between 60,000 and 100,000 individual cases” during its 26-year civil war that ended in 2009. The discovery prompted international concern over accountability, sparking demands for thorough and proper investigations into the findings.