Responding to a new report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on accountability for conflict-related sexual violence committed in the context of Sri Lanka’s internal armed conflict, 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.
“It 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.
OHCHR’s findings further lay bare the failure of successive administrations to provide redress and the horrific impact it continues to have on survivors
Smriti Singh, Amnesty International’s South Asia Director
“OHCHR’s findings further lay bare the failure of successive administrations to provide redress and the horrific impact it continues to have on survivors. The new government committed itself to act, and the president himself declared: ‘If we fail to deliver justice, who else will?’ It’s time these words are translated into action.
“We urge the authorities to heed the many useful recommendations in this report to end impunity and publicly commit to a timeline to implement long overdue steps that ensure the swift realization of truth, justice and reparations.”
Background
The OHCHR report, available here, states 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”.
The report emphasizes 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.”
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