UN Visit to Sri Lanka Cannot Whitewash State Crimes Targeting Minorities
June 21, 2025
Ahead of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s visit to Sri Lanka on June 23rd, Justice For All Canada echos the position reiterated by human rights groups: amid illegal land grabs and impunity, this visit must not serve as a political prop for a government that continues to weaponize state institutions against Muslim and Tamil populations.
Sixteen years after the war ended, mass graves are still being unearthed. Just this month, the remains of at least 19 individuals and infants were recovered in Chemmani, Jaffna. Families of the disappeared have repeatedly demanded international oversight of exhumations, amid decades of failed prosecutions and coverups. In Mullivaikkal, where over 169,000 Tamils remain missing and are presumed dead, survivors continue to wait for acknowledgment and redress.
Following the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, Sri Lanka’s Muslim communities have been scapegoated and subjected to systemic discrimination and collective punishment. Hundreds of families are still subjected to police surveillance and arbitrary questioning. Muslims in Sri Lanka experience social exclusion, with no formal charges ever laid. Despite repeated promises to repeal it, the Prevention of Terrorism Act is continually used to silence critics and criminalize Muslim and Tamil dissent.
Land seizures have also intensified. Tamil and Muslim lands across the North and East are being absorbed into state-controlled reserves, military zones, and Buddhist religious sites. In places like Thaiyiddy, Buddhist viharas are deliberately constructed on expropriated land, while Tamil and Muslim heritage is systematically erased.
The state’s use of archaeological and religious institutions to enable land grabs is inseparable from its broader strategy to fragment and neutralize Tamil and Muslim political agency. Tamil MPs and local leaders who raise these issues face harassment, such as police summons and public delegitimization.
President Dissanayake campaigned on reform and reconciliation, yet his government has preserved past regime repression by defending war criminals and obstructing accountability. Despite obtaining a parliamentary majority, Dissanayake has failed to initiate meaningful structural reform or dismantle the system of impunity.
Justice For All Canada’s Sri Lanka Task Force urges the UN High Commissioner to use this visit to confront what is unfolding: a continuity of state violence under new leadership. We echo Tamil and Muslim civil society actors calling for:
There can be no genuine reconciliation while graves are left unmarked, trials never held, survivors ignored, and accountability denied.
Works Cited
Human Rights Watch. Joint Letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 17 June 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/17/joint-letter-to-the-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights.
Oakland Institute. Ahead of UN Human Rights Chief’s Visit to Sri Lanka, the Oakland Institute Calls for Action on Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Violations and Landgrabs. 19 June 2025, https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/public-statement/ahead-un-human-rights-chiefs-visit-sri-lanka-oakland-institute-calls-action-sri.
Oakland Institute. Escalating Land Grabs Threaten Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka. 12 Sept. 2024, https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release/escalating-land-grabs-threaten-tamils-muslims-sri-lanka.
Ahead of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk’s visit to Sri Lanka on June 23rd, Justice For All Canada echos the position reiterated by human rights groups: amid illegal land grabs and impunity, this visit must not serve as a political prop for a government that continues to weaponize state institutions against Muslim and Tamil populations.
Sixteen years after the war ended, mass graves are still being unearthed. Just this month, the remains of at least 19 individuals and infants were recovered in Chemmani, Jaffna. Families of the disappeared have repeatedly demanded international oversight of exhumations, amid decades of failed prosecutions and coverups. In Mullivaikkal, where over 169,000 Tamils remain missing and are presumed dead, survivors continue to wait for acknowledgment and redress.
Following the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, Sri Lanka’s Muslim communities have been scapegoated and subjected to systemic discrimination and collective punishment. Hundreds of families are still subjected to police surveillance and arbitrary questioning. Muslims in Sri Lanka experience social exclusion, with no formal charges ever laid. Despite repeated promises to repeal it, the Prevention of Terrorism Act is continually used to silence critics and criminalize Muslim and Tamil dissent.
Land seizures have also intensified. Tamil and Muslim lands across the North and East are being absorbed into state-controlled reserves, military zones, and Buddhist religious sites. In places like Thaiyiddy, Buddhist viharas are deliberately constructed on expropriated land, while Tamil and Muslim heritage is systematically erased.
The state’s use of archaeological and religious institutions to enable land grabs is inseparable from its broader strategy to fragment and neutralize Tamil and Muslim political agency. Tamil MPs and local leaders who raise these issues face harassment, such as police summons and public delegitimization.
President Dissanayake campaigned on reform and reconciliation, yet his government has preserved past regime repression by defending war criminals and obstructing accountability. Despite obtaining a parliamentary majority, Dissanayake has failed to initiate meaningful structural reform or dismantle the system of impunity.
Justice For All Canada’s Sri Lanka Task Force urges the UN High Commissioner to use this visit to confront what is unfolding: a continuity of state violence under new leadership. We echo Tamil and Muslim civil society actors calling for:
- Withdrawal of the military from civilian areas in the North and East and return occupied land to its rightful owners.
- Allowing international experts to monitor all mass grave exhumations, including sites in Chemmani and Mullivaikkal.
- Ending state-driven land grabs carried out through archaeology, conservation, and religious infrastructure projects.
- Stopping the targeting Tamil and Muslim voices with intimidation, police harassment, and criminal investigations.
- Repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act without replacing it with equally abusive legislation.
- Renewing and strengthening the UN’s evidence-gathering mandate to ensure continued international oversight.
There can be no genuine reconciliation while graves are left unmarked, trials never held, survivors ignored, and accountability denied.
Works Cited
Human Rights Watch. Joint Letter to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. 17 June 2025, https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/06/17/joint-letter-to-the-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights.
Oakland Institute. Ahead of UN Human Rights Chief’s Visit to Sri Lanka, the Oakland Institute Calls for Action on Sri Lanka’s Human Rights Violations and Landgrabs. 19 June 2025, https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/public-statement/ahead-un-human-rights-chiefs-visit-sri-lanka-oakland-institute-calls-action-sri.
Oakland Institute. Escalating Land Grabs Threaten Tamils and Muslims in Sri Lanka. 12 Sept. 2024, https://www.oaklandinstitute.org/press-release/escalating-land-grabs-threaten-tamils-muslims-sri-lanka.