UN Special Rapporteurs on Wednesday urged the Sri Lankan government to stop the ongoing torture taking place and ensure the legal framework allowing human rights violations is replaced and the Prevention of Terrorism Act is removed. “Sri Lanka is taking steps to draft a new constitution, an undertaking that presents an opportunity to reinforce the independence and impartiality of the justice sector and provide more safeguards against torture and other serious human rights violations,” Mónica Pinto, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Juan E. Méndez, UN Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, said in statement following their recent visit to the island.

Protestors in London are currently demonstrating against Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, who is visiting the United Kingdom today.

A wide range of civil society actors have expressed 'urgent concerns' regarding the Sri Lankan government's proposed Office of Missing Persons (OMP), and called for 'substantial international involvement', in a letter to President Maithripala Sirisena. The signatories, which included members of southern civil society and Tamil civil society from the North-East, noted that the government is yet to share the ideas for the mechanism and said there were concerns about continuing violations, such as white van abductions and harassment of victims' families by security forces. The letter urged that justice cannot be compromised and that the OMP should facilitate rather than impede justice mechanisms. "We reject the idea that seeking truth may be separated from victim families’ right to justice, and insist that the pursuit of these two rights be recognized as complementary. In this regard, a model that excludes or insulates the OMP from sharing information gathered during tracing investigations with a criminal investigative process would be unacceptable. Information available to the OMP must be made available to other transitional justice mechanisms, with appropriate safeguards in the interests of protection of witnesses or victim families, "We strongly suggest that the Government rename the proposed Office as ‘Office of Missing and Forcibly Disappeared Persons’, so as to reflect accurately the mandate of the body," the letter further said. "We are also concerned about, and would like to draw the Government’s attention to continuing incidents of harassment and intimidation of victim families and activists that are not helpful in creating a conducive environment for public consultations or operationalization of the OMP mechanism. The continued use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the lack of due process in carrying out arrests and resuming the use of white vans in the past month have heightened the sense of fear and insecurity among affected people."

The current Sri Lankan government continues to keep “much of the war machinery” in place said UN Special Rapporteur Monica Pinto, at a press conference in Colombo on Saturday. "The government has changed, the war is over,” said Ms Pinto. “But much of the war machinery is still in place." The Special Rapporteur went on to state that “Sri Lanka is at a crucial moment in its history”. “It is now critical and urgent to replace the legal framework that allowed serious human rights violations to happen and set up sound democratic institutions and legal standards that will give effect to and protect the human rights embodied in the constitution or Sri Lanka as well as the international human rights treaties it has voluntarily ratified,” she said. Claims of “international terrorism and organized crime… can never justify the continuation of repressive practices or a normative framework that contributes to violations of fundamental rights and civil liberties,” she added. Ms Pinto also outlined steps the government should take to implement judicial reform and bring about prosecutions for violations of international humanitarian law. “The government should ensure that the bodies set up or existing which have to deal with these issues, be composed by independent and impartial people, completely beyond any questioning by the society, well learned in law,” she said.