Sunanda Deshapriya.
At the 60th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, a new draft resolution on Sri Lanka has been tabled. Led by the United Kingdom and co-sponsored by Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, the resolution presents a more conciliatory tone toward the current Sri Lankan government compared to its predecessor, Resolution 51/1. While acknowledging recent reforms, it continues to emphasize the urgent need for truth, justice, and accountability for wartime and post-war human rights violations.
No International Investigation
Notably, neither this draft resolution nor Resolution 51/1 makes any reference to Sri Lanka’s participation in an international accountability mechanism. The text stops short of endorsing an international investigation into alleged war crimes committed during and after the conflict.
This omission signals that the long-standing demand for an international investigation—voiced consistently by Tamil political parties, large segments of the Tamil diaspora, and civil society organizations—is unlikely to be realized in the near future. Instead, the resolution reiterates the call for a credible domestic accountability process and maintains international pressure on the government to deliver on that front.
In 2022, the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 51/1 in response to Sri Lanka’s deepening crisis—one marked by economic collapse, mass protests, and entrenched impunity. The resolution painted a stark picture of systemic failures, calling for urgent reforms and international accountability. Three years later, the draft Resolution 60/L.1 reflects a cautious shift in tone. While it acknowledges steps taken by the new government, it maintains pressure for meaningful change, signaling that the road to justice remains long and uneven.
Both resolutions underscore the importance of structural reform. Resolution 51/1 demanded the restoration of devolution through timely provincial council elections and the strengthening of independent institutions. The 2025 draft reiterates this call, placing renewed emphasis on the 13th Amendment and the need for genuine power-sharing. It also welcomes plans for an independent prosecutorial authority and a special counsel—potentially transformative steps if implemented with integrity.
Judicial independence remains a cornerstone of both texts. The earlier resolution stressed the need to safeguard the Human Rights Commission, the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), and the Office for Reparations. The newer draft goes further, urging international support for the OMP’s work, especially in the exhumation of mass graves—a painful but necessary process for truth and closure.
Accountability for past violations remains central. Resolution 51/1 condemned the lack of domestic justice mechanisms and expanded the OHCHR’s mandate to preserve evidence. The 2025 draft builds on this, welcoming the reopening of emblematic cases and urging victim participation in investigations. It also extends OHCHR’s mandate, ensuring continued international oversight through session 66.
Both resolutions acknowledge abuses by all parties, including the LTTE. However, the 2025 draft adopts a broader framing, emphasizing the need for impartial justice across the board. This shift reflects a more inclusive approach to transitional justice—one that centers victims rather than political narratives.
Civil liberties and protection of dissent are recurring themes. Resolution 51/1 highlighted surveillance, harassment, and reprisals against activists and journalists. The newer draft calls for an end to such reprisals, with special attention to women human rights defenders. It also critiques the Online Safety Act, urging amendments to align with international standards on freedom of expression.
The economic crisis looms large in both texts. The 2022 resolution detailed the devastating impact on food, fuel, and medicine access, especially for vulnerable groups. The 2025 draft welcomes efforts to address these challenges but links their root causes to governance failures and corruption. It urges further action, including investigations into former officials—a bold but necessary demand for accountability.
Transitional justice and reconciliation are given renewed focus. Resolution 51/1 emphasized the need for inclusive, consultative mechanisms. The 2025 draft encourages full victim participation in prosecutions and investigations, reinforcing the principle that justice must be survivor-centered. It also calls for transparent resolution of land disputes and the release of military-occupied lands—key steps toward restoring trust and dignity.
Monitoring and reporting remain vital tools. Resolution 51/1 expanded OHCHR’s role in evidence preservation and accountability support. The 2025 draft extends this mandate and sets a new schedule for oral and written updates, ensuring sustained international engagement. It also welcomes recent visits by Special Procedures and urges implementation of their recommendations.
Together, these resolutions chart a complex but hopeful trajectory. They reflect the international community’s evolving stance—one that balances recognition of reform with a firm insistence on justice, transparency, and human rights. For victims, civil society, and advocates, the message is clear: the path to accountability is still open, but it must be walked with courage, integrity, and unwavering commitment.
Draft resolution in full:
Promoting reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka
The Human Rights Council,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and relevant international human rights treaties,
Recalling previous Human Rights Council resolutions on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, the most recent of which being resolution 57/1 of 9 October 2024,
Reaffirming its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of Sri Lanka,
Reaffirming also that it is the primary responsibility of each State to respect human rights and to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms by its entire population,
Welcoming the holding of free and transparent democratic Presidential, Parliamentary and local elections in September 2024, November 2024 and May 2025, respectively,
Calling upon the Government of Sri Lanka to fulfil its commitments on the devolution of political authority, which is integral to reconciliation and the full enjoyment of human rights by all members of its population, and encouraging the Government to respect local governance, including through the holding of elections for provincial councils, and to ensure that all provincial councils, including the northern and eastern provincial councils, are able to operate effectively, in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka,
Welcoming the ongoing efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka to address the impacts of the severe economic crisis, and underscoring the importance of addressing the underlying governance factors and root causes that contributed to that crisis, including militarization, corruption, lack of accountability in governance and impunity for human rights violations and abuses,
Reaffirming that all individuals in Sri Lanka are entitled to the full enjoyment of their human rights without distinction of any kind such as religion, belief or ethnic origin, and the importance of a peaceful and unified land to the enjoyment of human rights,
Emphasising the need to promote and protect the rights of women and children including by combating gender-based violence,
Stressing the importance of a comprehensive accountability process for all violations and abuses of human rights committed in Sri Lanka by all parties, including those abuses by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,
Recalling the responsibility of States to comply with their relevant obligations under human rights law and international humanitarian law, including, where applicable, to prosecute those responsible for gross violations of human rights law or serious violations of international humanitarian law,
- Welcomes the oral update presented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to the Human Rights Council at its fifty-eighth session and the report of Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights presented to the Council at its current session;
- Welcomes also the visit to Sri Lanka by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in June 2025 at the invitation of the Government of Sri Lanka, as well as its engagement with the Office of the High Commissioner and the special procedures of the Human Rights Council, encourages the continuation of such engagement and dialogue, and calls upon Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations made by the Office and to give due consideration to the recommendations made by the special procedures;
- Recognises the measures taken by the government towards accountability for corruption and economic mismanagement which had a significant detrimental impact on the enjoyment of human rights in Sri Lanka, and encourages further action in this regard including investigating and, where warranted, prosecuting corruption, including where committed by current and former public officials;
- Further welcomes the Government’s acknowledgement of the harms and sufferings resulting from decades of divisive racist politics and ethnic conflicts, its recognition of the shared pain and grief of individuals from all communities and its commitment to guarantee democracy, to restore the rule of law and to create a society free from discrimination;
- Takes note of the Government’s commitment to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the appointment of a committee to examine its repeal, while expressing concern that detentions under that law continue, mainly against individuals from Tamil and Muslim communities, and urges the Government to apply a moratorium on the use of the law, to expedite its repeal, and to ensure that any legislation on combating terrorism complies fully with the State’s obligations arising from international law;
- Welcomes the Government’s commitment to amend the Online Safety Act and the appointment of a committee to formulate amendments to the law, while acknowledging concerns about the Act’s absence of judicial oversight and broad definition of offences and enforcement powers, and encourages the Government to expedite its amendment to ensure the Act fully complies with the State’s international obligations to protect the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
- Recognises that many cases of enforced disappearances remain unresolved in Sri Lanka, and the prolonged suffering this has caused to the families of the disappeared, acknowledges the identification of multiple mass graves sites in Sri Lanka, stresses the need for ongoing work to be provided with adequate resources and the importance of the independent and effective functioning of the Office on Missing Persons and urges the Government to proactively seek international support to ensure sufficient financial, human and technical resources to conduct exhumations in line with international standards;
- Welcomes the Government’s commitment to a renewed direction on several long-standing issues, acknowledges the reopening of investigations and prosecutions into some emblematic cases of human rights violations, as well as the Easter Sunday bombings, urges the Government of Sri Lanka to accelerate investigations and prosecutions in compliance with international human rights standards, to seek international assistance to strengthen capacities, and to ensure the full participation of victims, survivors and their representatives as well as victim and witness protection;
- Acknowledges with appreciation the Government’s commitment to establish an independent public prosecutorial body and urges this to be fully independent, effective and robust and encourages the Government to consider the creation of a judicial mechanism with an independent special counsel in relation to the cases of human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law committed in previous decades;
- Calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to ensure the prompt, thorough and impartial investigation and, if warranted, prosecution of all alleged crimes relating to human rights violations and serious violations of international humanitarian law, including for long-standing emblematic cases, with the full participation of victims and their representatives;
- Calls for an end to all forms of harassment of and reprisals against representatives of civil society, human rights defenders, journalists, victims, survivors and their families, especially women;
- Stresses the importance of releasing lands still occupied and used economically by the military and other state actors, and of resolving land disputes involving archaeological, religious and conservation issues in ways that are transparent, consultative, impartial and non-discriminatory;
- Decides to extend the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner and all work requested of it by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 51/1, and requests the Office to present an oral update to the Council at its sixty-first and sixty-fourth sessions, a written update at its sixty-third session, and a comprehensive report on progress in reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka at its sixty-sixth session, to be discussed in an interactive dialogue.
Issued under the caption ( FOR SECRET ARIAT USE ONLY, A/HRC/60/L.1, Item 2
Received from (main sponsors): United Kingdom, Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia
Date and time: 9/09/2025, 10:13)