The Human Rights Office of the United Nations announced on Thursday that in Sri Lanka the basic freedoms were under threat, as a new president is to be elected in September.
A report released by the UN agency on Thursday emphasized that despite its promises, Sri Lanka has failed to make any changes in its human rights protection system while holding its first presidential elections since coming out of a deep economic crisis.
Consequently, OHCHR stated that instead, starting from 2023 “legislation and draft bills have given broad powers to security forces” and extended “limitations on freedom of expression as well as opinion and association”.
UN Human rights chief Volker Turk expressed his concern regarding this trend and said: ‘This trend is particularly concerning as the country is in an important pre-election period’.
OHCHR also underscored that democracy in Sri Lanka has been affected by “erosion of democratic checks and balances, ongoing threats and intimidation against civil society and journalists, recurrence” of past violations.
‘According to the UN’s estimates at least 40,000 civilians died during a lightning military offensive over the last few months of the war. The government forces’ indiscriminate shelling targeting civilians was highly criticized.
“Crimes and violations committed during and after the civil war… must not go unpunished,” said e High Commissioner.
Ending an unprecedented economic crisis caused severe food, fuel shortages island wide for months along with medicine shortages leading to general unrest across the nation.
