It is essential to continue Sri Lanka’s accountability program; Human Rights Watch
19-Sep-2025.
The incidents that occurred in Sri Lanka 16 years ago, which still remain unpunished, served as a model for the violations and strategies now being employed in Gaza.
Against this backdrop, the accountability mechanism for Sri Lanka, advanced through a resolution adopted by the UN Human Rights Council, is indispensable.
It is not only crucial for protecting human rights in Sri Lanka but also essential for challenging the global trend of impunity. This was emphasized by Meenakshi Ganguly, Regional Director for Asia at Human Rights Watch.
In an article authored by her, she further observed:
Memories of atrocities that shocked the world are often replaced within a few years by newer violations. But for the victims and their families, the pain caused by those abuses remains unending. Crimes left unresolved become precedents for future violations.
In 2009, the Sri Lankan government defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), resulting in the deaths of thousands. According to findings by the United Nations, both sides to the conflict committed serious violations of international law and crimes against humanity. Yet today, some of those same practices are being pursued by Israeli military officials. This has been possible precisely because there were no consequences for atrocities committed in the past.
Successive governments in Sri Lanka, despite promising to uphold international law, have repeatedly acted in violation of those promises, demonstrating that one can escape accountability regardless of the crime. Therefore, the UN Human Rights Council must not only continue pressing for accountability but also renew its mandate at the ongoing 60th session in Geneva this month to collect evidence of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka.
During the nearly 26-year-long civil war, both parties to the conflict committed egregious violations, including attacks on civilians, unlawful killings, and enforced disappearances. In the final months of the war, the remaining LTTE cadres and Tamil civilians were encircled in a narrow strip of land by the Sri Lankan military.
While the LTTE used civilians as human shields, the Sri Lankan army blocked humanitarian aid from entering and declared certain areas as “No Fire Zones,” only to subject them to aerial bombardments and artillery strikes. Medical facilities were systematically targeted. The events that unfolded in Sri Lanka 16 years ago, still unpunished, became a blueprint for the violations and strategies now unfolding in Gaza.
Nationwide, nearly 20 mass graves linked to the JVP insurrection and the war with the LTTE have been discovered, most of them accidentally. Recently, at the newly identified mass grave in Chemmani, skeletal remains of more than 200 people believed to have been killed under military custody during the 1990s were unearthed. Yet, due to lack of technical capacity and political will, no investigation into any of the mass graves in Sri Lanka has been successfully completed to date.
Against such a backdrop, the accountability mechanism advanced through the resolution of the UN Human Rights Council concerning Sri Lanka is essential. It is necessary not only to safeguard human rights in Sri Lanka but also to challenge the global culture of impunity.
