Geneva, September 1, 2026 — Sri Lanka’s efforts to prosecute grave human rights abuses have stalled, raising fresh concerns about the government’s commitment to accountability, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released today. The rights organisation urged United Nations officials and member states at the Human Rights Council to press President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s administration to demonstrate genuine progress on emblematic cases long mired in impunity.
The 49‑page report, “‘Not Genuine with Justice’: Sri Lanka’s Lack of Will to Prosecute Past Abuses,” assesses seven major cases in which the Dissanayake government has made limited headway since taking office in 2024. HRW found that while some investigations have resumed, many others — including enforced disappearances, torture, and killings — remain stalled, and victims’ families and human rights defenders continue to face threats and intimidation.
“Break from past practice”
“The Dissanayake administration needs to break from past government practice of delaying and denying justice for grave abuses,” said Lucy McKernan, UN Human Rights Council director at HRW. “The UN Human Rights Council should urge the Sri Lankan government to take credible steps toward accountability for past crimes and end reprisals against victims, their families, and human rights defenders.”
HRW interviewed 32 victims, relatives of the disappeared, lawyers, and rights activists, and reviewed extensive court documentation.
Decades of unresolved atrocities
Tens of thousands of people were tortured, abducted, forcibly disappeared, or killed by state forces and nonstate armed groups during the 1987–1989 Marxist insurgency and the civil war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in 2009. Despite more than 10 commissions appointed since the 1990s, none have led to prosecutions or revealed the fate of thousands who vanished.
A family member of a disappearance victim in Jaffna told HRW: “Excavations alone will not provide justice. Will those who are responsible for abuses be held accountable?” Investigators have recovered the remains of 582 people from the Chemmani mass grave near Jaffna, yet there has been no progress in identifying victims or determining what happened to them.
Limited progress, major gaps
The report notes that the Dissanayake government has revived several previously derailed investigations, including:
- The 2009 killing of journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge
- The 2010 enforced disappearance of cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda
- The abduction-for-ransom of 11 young men by naval intelligence officers in 2008–2009
An inquiry into an alleged high-level conspiracy behind the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings has also advanced. In February 2026, police arrested former military intelligence officer Suresh Sallay for allegedly colluding with an Islamist group accused of carrying out the attacks. In June, a court imposed foreign travel bans on former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and two intelligence officers linked to the ongoing investigation.
However, HRW said the government has shown “insufficient urgency” in addressing other emblematic cases. No one has been arrested for the 2006 killing of five Tamil students in Trincomalee or the massacre of 17 Action Contre la Faim aid workers, despite two decades of advocacy.
Resistance to international accountability
The government has refused to accept the Sri Lanka Accountability Project, established by the UN Human Rights Council to collect evidence of serious abuses. It has also failed to establish the promised Directorate of Public Prosecution, intended to independently pursue cases of past violations.
Instead, the administration continues to rely on mechanisms such as the Office on Missing Persons and Office for Reparations, which many families say are designed to delay justice rather than deliver it.
UN urged to maintain pressure
Since 2009, the UN has played a central role in documenting abuses and pushing for accountability. Reports by the UN Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts (2011) and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2015) detailed extensive war crimes committed by both government forces and the LTTE. The Human Rights Council has since adopted multiple resolutions calling for justice.
HRW said the UN Human Rights Council and OHCHR should continue to monitor the Dissanayake government’s progress and push for concrete action.
“The Dissanayake government should jumpstart its efforts to obtain genuine accountability for the killings and disappearances in the past conflicts,” McKernan said. “The UN high commissioner and UN member states should urge the government to demonstrate its expressed commitment to justice in Sri Lanka.”
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