Ahead of the UN Human Rights Chief’s latest report on Sri Lanka, and a likely resolution at the coming session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the Sri Lankan government reiterated that it would not accept any external mechanism on war-time accountability.
Though rejecting the possibility of external mechanisms—as the former Rajapaksa administration too did—for accountability and justice in regard to alleged war crimes, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry vowed to strengthen domestic processes “within Sri Lanka’s constitutional framework.” He stated that their constitution does not permit an external mechanism without elaborating on the constitutional provisions that prohibit it.
In recent years, rights advocates within Sri Lanka as well as UN experts have drawn attention to targeted attacks on the island nation’s Muslim community, arrests under anti-terrorism laws to “stifle” dissent, persisting militarisation, and a shrinking space for human rights and democratic freedoms.
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