Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the UN Human Rights Council to renew monitoring and evidence collection as a new UN Report details Sri Lanka’s human rights situation.
However, a New report by the United Nations high commissioner for human rights warns that Sri Lanka is facing renewed threats to fundamental freedoms.
It finds that authorities have sought new repressive laws and engaged in intimidation and violence against victims of past abuses, civil societyactivists, journalists, and government critics.
The report finds that “ill-treatment by police and security forces remain prevalent.” Between January 2023 and March 2024, the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka recorded 21 alleged extrajudicial killings, 26 deaths in custody, and 1,342 arbitrary arrests and detentions. The UN examined recent allegations of “abduction, arbitrary detention, torture, ill-treatment and sexual violence perpetrated against individuals of Tamil ethnicity by Sri Lankan security forces.”
Meanwhile, new laws “have profound implications for … fundamental freedoms and the rule of law,” the report says. The Online Safety Act contains powers to restrict freedom of expression, and proposed legislation curtailing nongovernment organizations would severely affect groups already suffering from “surveillance, intimidation and harassment
