PEARL calls on UN member states to take 'swift action' against Sri Lanka’s mass atrocity crimes

by admin
Oct 14, 2024

The People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) called on United Nations member states to take "swift action" to bring Sri Lankan perpetrators of human rights abuses to justice using the evidence collected by the OHCHR mandated Sri Lanka Accountability Project. 

Last week the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) passed a resolution which extends the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for a further year so that it can continue collecting evidence of Sri Lanka's human rights violations that may be used in future war crimes trials.

Although PEARL welcomed the UN resolution, they called on the international community to pursue "broader accountability efforts" for Sri Lanka's human rights abuses. 

"Member states should heed the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’s call to investigate and prosecute perpetrators through universal jurisdiction and other international legal options, including the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court," PEARL said. 

The new Sri Lankan government rejected the resolution and claimed that it will pursue domestic mechanisms to address accountability and reconciliation. 

In their statement, PEARL highlighted that Sri Lanka's promises of reconciliation "ring hollow" as human rights abuses such as land grabs, heavy militarisation, attacks on Tamil memorialisation, and surveillance, intimidation and harassment of human rights activists are ongoing in the North-East. 

The advocacy organisation went on to add that domestic mechanisms are "a disturbing reminder of the deep entrenchment of the culture of impunity, and Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarianism in Sri Lanka’s state structures and the general public in the South."

Read PEARL's full statement here. 

 

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