Stop-Torture-Report

I.Political Context
Total impunity for the wartime violations has enabled the Sri Lankan security
forces to continue to commit crimes against humanity during peacetime.
On 8 January 2015, President Maithripala Sirisena was elected in Sri Lanka,
heralding change after a decade of rule by the Rajapaksa family. The new
coalition, which came to power thanks partly to the Tamil vote, pledged to root
out financial corruption and restore rule of law.
Tragically as this report demonstrates, systematic and widespread crimes
against humanity have not ceased with the change of government. The new
coalition has made no attempt to take apart the structures of repression
entrenched by the previous regime. As a result state-organised abductions,
torture and sexual violence by the security forces have continued long after the
change of government and as recently as July 2015.
Initially there was huge optimism that the new government would credibly
address accountability for the past and end ongoing human rights abuses, even
though the coalition contained leaders who denied that war crimes and postwar
crimes against humanity or other serious violations of human rights had
taken place 1 . The new government quickly won international backing and
achieved a postponement of the presentation to the Human Rights Council of
the UN’s investigation into “alleged serious violations and abuses of human
rights and related crimes” from 2002-11 in Sri Lanka 2 .
The change of government did improve the atmosphere in the south of the
island, loosening controls over the media, NGO’s and travel to the north. Even
in the former conflict areas there was a little more public space and protests
1 For an examination of the statements by the new government on accountability see Annexure II.
2 OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka, accessed at http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/Pages/OISL.aspx
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