UK adds Sri Lanka among countries with deteriorating human rights

The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has included Sri Lanka among countries which have seen a deterioration in human rights during January to June this year. 

Sri Lanka’s inclusion, along with Afghanistan, Central African Republic, China, Eritrea, and Myanmar, is in the updated assessment of the 31 priority countries from 1 January to 30 June 2021.

In July 2021, the FCDO published the 2020 Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report. The report provided an assessment of the global human rights situation, and set out the UK Government’s thematic, consular, and program work to advance human rights throughout the world. It focused on 31 countries where the FCDO are particularly concerned about human rights issues, and where it considers that the UK can make a real difference.

The 31 Human Rights Priority Countries are: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

The situation in Sri Lanka as per the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office is as follows:

“The human rights situation in Sri Lanka continued to deteriorate during the first half of 2021. The January 2021 report on Sri Lanka by the Office of the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) expressed deep concern over “trends emerging over the past year, which represent clear early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation and a significantly heightened risk of future violations”. The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted resolution 46/1 in March, expressing serious concern about these trends, and stressing the importance of a comprehensive accountability process for all human rights violations and abuses committed in Sri Lanka.

“Security forces increased their surveillance and intimidation of human rights activists and their use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, with a number of arbitrary arrests. The Government proposed new regulations with powers to arrest and send individuals to rehabilitation centres to be ‘de-radicalised’ with no judicial oversight or requirement for further process. The President pardoned a convicted murderer on death row, and appointed controversial individuals to lead independent institutions such as the Office of Missing Persons. 

“The Government initiated activity to obstruct accountability in a number of emblematic human rights cases. There were several deaths in custody which the Sri Lankan Bar Association described as having “all the hall-marks of extrajudicial killings.”

“Government marginalisation of minority groups continued, with the banning of several groups including Tamil and Muslim welfare organisations, and restrictions on memorialisation events, particularly for communities in the North and East.”