The Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice detailed the failure of the Sri Lankan government to fulfil the commitment it had made under resolutions 30/1 -34/1 at the UN Human Rights Council, in a report released this week entitled 'No will, no war: stalled efforts to deal with the past in Sri Lanka'.

Whilst there has been modest reforms made by the government, the report highlighted “the overwhelming majority of the commitments made by the government of Sri Lanka remain either mostly or completely unachieved”.

The report drew attention to the frustration of the victims, a lack of political will within the Sri Lankan government to address the root cause, and that the modest steps taken were all too easily reversible by any future administration.

Sri Lanka initially committed to resolution 30/1 in 2015 under the leadership of Sirisena’s administration. At the 34th session, in 2017, the UNHRC adopted resolution 34/1 due to the limited progress on transitional justice. This allowed the deadlines for the initial resolution, 30/1, to be rolled back a few years.

The Sri Lanka Campaign called on UN member states to reaffirm their commitment by adopting a further resolution at the current session to keep Sri Lanka committed to its promises and argued that this must be regardless of political will on behalf of Sri Lanka's leadership.

The report also details the need for a clear timeline from Sri Lanka as to how it hopes to fulfil its commitments, pointing out the government could start by repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, returning military occupied lands, and releasing records of wartime surrendees who were later disappeared. These actions can be taken immediately or within the next 12 months, Sri Lankan Campaign noted. 

Calling also for a review of the broader ways in which the international community engages with Sri Lanka in terms of aid, trade, military-military cooperation and UN Peacekeeping, Sri Lankan Campaign said such a review could look to understand the mechanism enabling Sri Lanka to avoid its commitments.

Hundreds of families of the disappeared gather in Kilinochchi on February 25, 2019

The report was published amid ongoing protests in the North-East as Tamils condemn reports Sri Lanka will be given another two years to implement the resolution. Tamils have instead called for the country to be referred to the International Criminal Court, highlighting the government's failure to take meaningful action on the resolution. 

You can read the full report here.