The National Peace Council (NPC) has urged the government to engage constructively with the Opposition and with civil society in shaping its position at the forthcoming UNHRC session.
The text of the NPC statement: “As Sri Lanka prepares to appear before the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva this September under Resolution 51/2, the government will need to show more than promises. The UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s 2025 report recognises that the new government has both a historic opportunity and a clear mandate to deliver results. The continuation of arbitrary arrests under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, custodial deaths, intimidation of civil society and the discovery of mass graves such as at Chemmani the UN report highlights shows the urgency of action.
Earlier this month the Cabinet of Ministers approved the development of a new National Policy and Action Plan on Reconciliation and Co-existence, to be spearheaded by the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) under the Ministry of Justice. A credible plan must include clear deadlines to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act, complete mass grave investigations, establish an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission with international participation, and create a prosecutorial body to pursue emblematic cases from the war and the Easter Sunday bombings. Military involvement in civilian life in the north and east must be scaled back, and land disputes resolved transparently.
Just as critical are steps that improve the daily lives of ethnic and religious minorities. People should not feel threatened by representatives of any faith. They must be free to use their language wherever they choose, yet even today many government documents are not available in Tamil. This must be corrected immediately. Provincial Council elections should not be delayed for delimitation exercises. In the east, appointments to senior government posts must reflect the Tamil-speaking majority, yet there has never been a Tamil Government Agent in Trincomalee or Ampara. The same exclusion is seen across departments, from the police to banks and forest services, where Tamil speakers remain under-represented. Courts in the east accommodate Sinhala but rarely Tamil, although Tamil speakers are often bilingual. This imbalance must end.
Development in the east lags behind the rest of the country. Batticaloa, historically the capital of the east, has lost its centrality since the establishment of the provincial council system and has not recovered. Key services such as telecoms, taxation and provincial administration are located elsewhere, leaving Batticaloa behind while towns like Polonnaruwa and Ampara have grown rapidly. Transport links are also neglected: there is no train from Batticaloa to Trincomalee or Jaffna, and no air-conditioned bus service from Batticaloa to Jaffna. These shortcomings reinforce the sense of exclusion and abandonment which is not limited to Batticaloa but other parts of the north and east.
What is needed for the forthcoming UNHRC session in Geneva is not another statement of intent but a concrete plan that delivers justice, guarantees language and religious rights, ensures fair representation in public service, and restores equality in development. Without this, reconciliation will remain out of reach. The National Peace Council urges the government to engage constructively with the opposition and with civil society in shaping its position at the forthcoming UNHRC session.”