Press Release: UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

GENEVA (17 May 2024) – Sri Lanka’s Government must take meaningful action to determine and disclose the fates and whereabouts of tens of thousands of people who have been subjected to enforced disappearance over the decades and hold those responsible to account, a UN Human Rights Office report released today says.

It calls on the Government to acknowledge the involvement of State security forces and affiliated paramilitary groups, and to issue a public apology.

This report is yet another reminder that all Sri Lankans who have been subjected to enforced disappearance must never be forgotten,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk. Their families and those who care about them have been waiting for so long. They are entitled to know the truth.

The Government owes it to all those who have been forcibly disappeared. It is critical for these crimes to be investigated fully. These crimes haunt not only their loved ones, but entire communities and Sri Lankan society as a whole.”

Despite some positive formal steps by successive governments, such as the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the establishment of the Office on Missing Persons and the Office for Reparations, tangible progress on the ground towards comprehensively resolving individual cases has remained limited, the report finds.