Sri Lanka

Abstract

The Sri Lankan government has made little progress in providing accountability for wartime abuses. The government's failure to comply with a March 2013 United Nations Human Rights Council resolution led to a new resolution in 2014. The resolution calls on the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and related crimes by both sides during Sri Lanka's civil war, which ended in 2009.The government has also continued its crackdown on critics. In March 2014, it detained two prominent human rights defenders who were looking into the arrest of an ethnic Tamil activist. Although the two were subsequently freed, the government arrested scores of other Tamils under the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act. It also labelled 16 overseas Tamil organizations as financers of terrorism without providing evidence of unlawful activity by the groups.A rally by the ultra-nationalist Buddhist Bodhu Bala Sena (BBS) escalated into violence in June, resulting in the death of four Muslims, injuries to at least 80 people, and the destruction of numerous Muslim homes and businesses.The government's treatment of Tamils forcibly returned to Sri Lanka after being denied asylum overseas continues to be a significant concern. In 2014, the government also started forcibly returning foreign nationals seeking asylum in Sri Lanka, many of them from communities at risk in Pakistan and Afghanistan.The government is continuing its rehabilitation and reconstruction efforts in the war-affected northern areas. In 2014, a long-promised victim and witness protection bill was enacted into law.