Amnesty International has called on the Sri Lankan government to take urgent action following the release of a new report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on accountability for conflict-related sexual violence committed during and after the country’s internal armed conflict.
Responding to the report, Smriti Singh, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director, said: “This important report builds on findings by previous UN investigations and highlights conflict-related sexual violence occurring well after the end of the internal armed conflict in 2009, citing incidents reported as recently as in 2024. The publication of the report must act as a clarion call for Sri Lanka’s government to finally deliver justice and accountability for the thousands of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence.”
She added that the report “reaffirms the widely-known truth that sexual violence against members of the Tamil community was ‘deliberate, widespread, and systemic.’ It also rightly recognizes that some of these acts may have amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Singh further noted that OHCHR’s findings expose the failure of successive administrations to provide redress and the ongoing impact on survivors, urging the new government to translate its commitments into action.
Amnesty International emphasized the need for authorities to heed the report’s recommendations, end impunity, and publicly commit to a timeline to implement long-overdue measures ensuring truth, justice, and reparations.
The remarks come after the OHCHR report stated that acts of conflict-related sexual violence “were employed as a strategic tool to extract information, assert dominance, intimidate individuals and communities, and instil a pervasive climate of fear and humiliation. Such violations were institutionally enabled, and disproportionately targeted conflict-affected communities.”
It further stresses that “Sri Lanka is obligated to prosecute perpetrators of sexual violence in conflict, including those who ordered, aided, or failed to prevent such acts through command responsibility.” (Newswire)