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Executive Summary
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Visits Sri Lanka
From 23–26 June 2025, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk visited Sri Lanka, meeting government officials, civil society, and victims to assess the country’s human rights situation. He focused on reconciliation and transitional justice, stressing the need for credible accountability mechanisms and the State’s responsibility to ensure justice. Türk highlighted ongoing surveillance and harassment of human rights defenders, persistent reports of torture and custodial deaths, and called for reforms in the security and justice sectors including the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the Online Safety Act, and laws criminalizing same-sex relationships. He particularly expressed concern over slow progress on issues such as enforced disappearances.
Key Findings from HRMI Survey 2025
In June 2025, the Human Rights Measurement Initiative (HRMI) released its 2024 scores for Sri Lanka. Arbitrary arrest, torture, freedom of expression, and freedom of association remained in the “bad” range, despite slight improvements. Freedom from torture scored 5.1/10—the lowest in this category—followed by 5.2/10 for freedom from arbitrary arrest. Freedom of assembly and association, and freedom of opinion and expression both scored 5.2/10, also in the “bad” range. Sri Lanka also recorded low scores in education, reproductive health, and the right to water, raising serious concern.
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Freedom of Expression and Media
In May and June 2025, the Ministry of Mass Media released the Draft of the National Media Policy, originally made in July 2024 before the current government took office. The policy includes positive provisions such as affirming media rights, editorial independence, journalist safety, and proposing a co-regulation model involving both the state and civil society. However, media rights groups have flagged gaps, particularly the lack of measures to reduce state control and ensure legal safeguards for implementation.
Retired Brigadier Shammi Kumararatne, the main suspect in the 2011 disappearance of journalist Prageeth Eknaligoda, was arrested for repeatedly threatening a key witness by phone.
A female sub-editor at a state-run newspaper was reinstated after the Supreme Court ruled in her favor in a political transfer case. In Nuwara Eliya, journalists were initially barred from covering the District Coordination Committee meeting on the 11th. An interim restraining order was issued against two YouTubers and a former politician, prohibiting them from making any further comments about MP Mujibur Rahuman. In a live-streamed social media video, Rahuman also stated that he had lodged a complaint against a senior journalist for allegedly making a false statement about him on social media. It was further reported that the CID has launched an investigation into alleged defamatory statements made on social media against staff members of the Attorney General’s Department.
Sri Lanka Core Group Meeting at UNHRC
At the 59th UN Human Rights Council session, the Sri Lanka Core Group—Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and the UK—expressed deep concern over the lack of substantive progress on human rights, accountability, and reconciliation. They criticized continued use of repressive laws and impunity in cases such as enforced disappearances, and reiterated willingness to engage constructively with the government.
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Mass Graves and Accountability
Excavations at the Chemmani mass grave revealed evidence of mass killings, with at least 33 skeletal remains unearthed in June. Families of the disappeared, human rights groups, and political leaders called for transparent, internationally monitored investigations. Civil society groups submitted a letter to the High Commissioner urging urgent international intervention. Tamil families of the forcibly disappeared in the North and East marked over 3,000 days of continuous protest, demanding justice through an international inquiry due to impunity in domestic processes.
Land Rights
The Supreme Court suspended a government gazette seeking to declare all unclaimed land in the North and East as state property. The Mallakam Magistrate’s Court issued injunctions against 27 individuals and organizations protesting land appropriation for Tissa Viharaya in Jaffna. The Fisheries Minister announced compensation or alternative land for Tamil landowners affected by the temple’s construction. Opposition MPs raised concerns about unauthorized clearing of 8,000 acres for an Air Force base in Mullaitivu, surveying of private lands near a Navy camp in Mannar, and prolonged military occupation of 2,400 acres in Valikamam North. In Batticaloa, the Eravur Magistrate’s Court acquitted 30 people charged over a land rights protest.
Legal Reforms
The Cabinet is drafting legislation to ban corporal punishment. The government plans to replace the PTA, though civil society opposes introducing new counterterrorism laws, arguing the existing framework suffices. Justice Minister Nanayakkara insists a new law is needed to address global terrorism threats. In a landmark ruling, the Supreme Court held that refusing to recognize Bhikkhunis and assigning them the lesser Dasasil Matha status when issuing national ID cards violates fundamental rights under the Constitution.
Rights of Marginalized and At-Risk Groups
Sri Lanka’s handling of refugee and asylum seeker cases has drawn criticism, triggering calls for urgent policy reform. In June, a UNHCR-certified refugee returning from India was detained at Palaly Airport under outdated laws. According to some Ministers, the government is considering legal reforms. Separately, 116 Rohingya asylum seekers have been held at an SLAF camp in Mullaitivu since December 2024. The government has denied UNHCR access, classifying them as “illegal migrants” and stating that only courts can decide their status. The Cabinet of Ministers have granted approval for the long-awaited Sign Language Bill, formally recognising sign language as an official means of communication. In Mullaitivu, two Tamil farmers from Kurunthurmalai, arrested for cultivating land claimed by a Sinhala Buddhist monk as an archaeological site, were released as court found no evidence to claim that it is an archeological site. An activist from Batticaloa was arbitrarily arrested at his workplace without a warrant, detained for several hours, and subjected to physical assault by prison officers before being released without charges. The Supreme Court ordered two police officers to personally compensate a victim of illegal arrest and torture. The Chairperson of the Trincomalee District Association of Families of the Forcibly Disappeared, Sebastian Devi, was subjected to a lengthy interrogation by the Terrorism Investigation Division, pressured to disclose affiliations with numerous organizations and questioned about international advocacy work. Tensions also escalated at sea, where a 23-year-old Tamil fisherman from Kuchchaveli was critically injured after Sri Lankan Navy personnel opened fire during an alleged anti-poaching operation.
Labour rights
The sudden and controversial shutdown of NEXT Manufacturing Ltd.’s garment factory in the Katunayake Free Trade Zone (FTZ), which resulted in the loss of employment for over 1,400 workers with little warning and conflicting explanations, has drawn significant criticism from various stakeholders. A joint statement from a coalition of trade unions and advocacy groups described the closure as “union-busting dressed up as a business strategy,” noting that it was the only unionized factory in the area and had successfully secured safer working conditions and other rights through collective bargaining.
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