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Joint Statement on Sri Lanka. Delivered by the UK's Human Rights Ambassador, Eleanor Sanders.
This statement is by the Sri Lanka Core Group: Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia and the UK.
We welcome the High Commissioner’s balanced assessment of the human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has faced considerable challenges recently, including severe weather events and global energy shocks. Against this backdrop, it is crucial that the government’s stated commitment to reform is translated into concrete progress.
We welcome the positive developments highlighted, including the ratification of ILO Convention 190, and Sri Lanka’s engagement on the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).
However, much further action is needed to build confidence in accountability and reconciliation efforts. Progress in several emblematic cases has not yet been accompanied by a comprehensive, victim-centred accountability process to address past violations. Mass grave excavations are a stark reminder that thousands of cases of enforced disappearances remain unresolved. And reports of intimidation, harassment, and restrictions affecting civil society, journalists and victims’ groups, including in the North and East, still raise concerns.
We urge progress on democratic governance, through transparent and inclusive consultation processes addressing the needs of all affected communities. This should include advancing legal and institutional reforms, resolving land-related issues, ensuring respect for human rights in detention institutions, and strengthening independent institutions.
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