The United Nations has told the Human Rights Council that Sri Lanka has made real progress in several high-profile criminal cases over the past year but that momentum for deeper legal and institutional reform “appears to be slowing” — and Sri Lanka has answered that reconciliation must stay nationally owned.
The update was delivered by Awa Dabo, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, rather than by High Commissioner Volker Türk, NewsFirst reported. Sri Lanka’s reply came from its Permanent Representative in Geneva, Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake.
What the UN credited
Dabo named specific cases. Among them: indictments filed last month against a former politician and others over the 2006 murder of the Vice Chancellor of Eastern University; the arrest of a former intelligence chief; and the conviction of a former Police Chief and a senior defence official over the Easter Sunday attacks.
Each is traceable in the record. The indictment is the Attorney General’s case against Pillayan and three co-accused over the killing of Professor Subramaniam Ravindranath. The Easter convictions are those of former IGP Pujith Jayasundara and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando, both sentenced to death in July. The former intelligence chief is ex-SIS director Suresh Sallay, arrested by the CID on 25 February over the Easter investigation and held since under the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Dabo also welcomed anti-corruption measures, Sri Lanka’s ratification of the International Labour Organization convention on freedom from violence and harassment at work, and President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s repeated statements against racism and sectarian politics.
What the UN flagged
On wider accountability, Dabo said there has been no meaningful progress on crimes under international law allegedly committed by both state security forces and the LTTE. Intimidation of victims and witnesses continues and protection mechanisms remain inadequate. Investigations stall despite documentation already in hand.
She said the government has not fulfilled its commitment to establish an independent public prosecutor separate from the Attorney General’s Department; that meaningful security sector reform is absent, with personnel suspected of serious violations still serving; and that reports of torture and deaths in custody continue.
The Office criticised continued reliance on the Prevention of Terrorism Act — and, separately, said the proposed law meant to replace it carries provisions that still threaten fundamental freedoms, due process and judicial oversight. It raised the same objection to a draft framework for registering and supervising non-governmental organisations, saying it grants disproportionate executive powers and risks undermining civil society’s independence and access to funding.
On disappearances, Dabo acknowledged the reopening of mass grave investigations but said confidence in the Office on Missing Persons remains limited: it has resolved 32 cases while the fate of tens of thousands remains unknown. She expressed disappointment at the government’s rejection of UN findings on conflict-related sexual violence, and called for prosecutions including through universal jurisdiction where necessary, and for closer vetting of security personnel serving on peacekeeping deployments.
A debt figure that now compares like with like
Dabo put roughly 82 percent of 2026 Budget revenue as going to debt interest and repayments — “more than double” combined spending on health, education and social protection.
That reframing is useful. Our earlier coverage of the report noted that the 82.59 percent figure was measured against government revenue while the social-spending figure of 1.9–2.4 percent was measured against GDP, making the two not directly comparable. Dabo’s formulation states the ratio on a single basis.
Sri Lanka’s reply
Dassanayake told the Council that the end of the conflict “marked not the end of challenges but the beginning of a long process of healing, rebuilding and reconciliation,” NewsFirst reported, and that progress requires “recognition of progress, understanding and encouragement rather than approaches that undermine national ownership.”
He reiterated that Sri Lanka does not support Resolution 60/1, including the extension of the external evidence-gathering mechanism, arguing such mechanisms risk creating divisions and undercutting national processes.
On substance he listed: real GDP growth of 5 percent in 2025; a strengthened CIABOC and the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan 2025–2029; completed stakeholder consultations on Online Safety Act amendments; a Truth and Reconciliation Commission draft framework under review to avoid overlapping existing bodies; an inter-ministerial committee on land release, valuation and compensation; Cabinet approval of special immigration measures to let Sri Lankan refugees in India return without valid travel documents; and a Committee of Inquiry into the Negombo Prison incidents.
Where the two accounts collide
Three of the exchanges are about the same facts.
On the independent prosecutor, Dabo says the commitment is unfulfilled; Dassanayake says a committee headed by a Supreme Court judge “continues to examine proposals.” Both can be true — and that is the disagreement, over whether a standing committee counts as progress.
On the PTA, Dassanayake said the Act is to be repealed and replaced with legislation “designed to safeguard fundamental freedoms and prevent abuse,” now being finalised and expected in Parliament next month. Dabo’s objection is to that same draft. The two are not disputing whether the PTA goes, but whether what replaces it is any better.
The tension runs into the UN’s own credit column. Dabo cites the arrest of the former intelligence chief as progress; Sallay is held under the PTA, the statute she asks Colombo to stop using.
Judicial reform, presented in Geneva and contested at home
Dassanayake also cited reforms to increase the number of judges and raise the judicial retirement age, framing them as measures to cut backlogs and improve access to justice.
Those are provisions of the 22nd Amendment. Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath made the same argument to the Council on 1 September — that the changes answer recommendations the UN system itself made. At home the same Bill has drawn 79 petitions to the Speaker and a Supreme Court determination due this sitting week. Neither NewsFirst report notes that the reform Colombo offers Geneva as evidence of judicial strengthening is the one its own bar and courts are contesting.
One open question closed
Our coverage of the session agenda recorded that no report had said whether Sri Lanka would send a delegation or exercise a right of reply. It did respond, through its Permanent Representative.
The Council’s published programme places the Sri Lanka written update in Monday afternoon’s meeting under agenda item two, with the item-two general debate running into Tuesday. NewsFirst filed both accounts on Tuesday and gives no time slot for either statement, so which sitting they belong to cannot be settled from its reporting.
Not reported
NewsFirst does not name the former politician, intelligence chief or Easter convicts that Dabo referenced, quote the full text of either statement, or report any response from other delegations. No other verified newsroom appears to have covered the exchange.
