Sri Lanka

The record shows that, if this is the only feasible route to accountability for now, countries will require additional support at the UN level to achieve accountability.

For more than a decade, in one atrocity case after another, justice is delayed, denied, or even reversed, as the government pursues impunity.

The credibility of the Human Rights Council and the UN system, given its “grave failure” in the past, depends on accountability for Sri Lanka’s atrocities.

The Biden administration should press the UN Human Rights Council for action and impose its own measures, including further sanctions.

The continuing impunity in the wartime killing of a revered editor and the recent escalation of rights abuses expose the government's recalcitrance.

She notes the Sri Lankan government has made clear that it has no intention of pursuing accountability for atrocities committed during the civil war.

Mapping a quarter century of war shows the patterns of violations that demand meaningful and credible truth and accountability processes.

The record is abundantly clear that the country’s domestic mechanisms lack effectiveness and credibility. This is a gap that the UN uniquely can fill.

On Sri Lanka and other issues, the Biden administration's decision sends the message that the protection of human rights is a deeply rooted priority.

The Rajapaksa government has gone so far as to install someone allegedly associated with a death squad on the Human Rights Council.

The Sri Lankan Civil War constitutes an unprecedented case in terms of the number of people who were framed as human shields and the mobilization of prominent human rights…

Editor’s Note: This piece is part of Just Security’s United Nations Special Rapporteurs on #COVID-19 series, in which mandate holders offer their views on pressing…