Twenty-two countries have signed on as co-sponsors to a revised UN resolution that will be voted on this week, extending the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) mandate on in Sri Lanka for another two years, according to Tamil Guardian.
The updated draft, which was tabled in Geneva on 01 October, will be taken up for consideration at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 08 October. The main sponsors of the resolution are the United Kingdom, Canada, Malawi, Montenegro and North Macedonia, with the majority of additional backers coming from European states.
Ten of the 27 countries sponsoring the resolution are current members of the UNHRC. The text extends both the OHCHR’s reporting mandate on Sri Lanka and the evidence-gathering mechanism known as the Sri Lanka Accountability Project (OSLAP).
The OSLAP unit was established to collect and preserve evidence of human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law committed in Sri Lanka, and to support potential future judicial proceedings in competent jurisdictions.
But Tamil groups have condemned the draft for failing to strengthen accountability provisions and deferring substantive action.
Tamil activists, including the Association of Relatives of the Enforced Disappeared (North and East), have branded the draft a “betrayal” that allows the Sri Lankan state further time to avoid accountability. The group publicly burnt copies of the resolution in the Tamil homeland this week, accusing the UN of shielding Colombo through weak, symbolic gestures.
The groups reiterated their longstanding demand for a referral of Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court (ICC) or the establishment of a special international tribunal to investigate genocide and other grave crimes committed against the Tamil people.
While the resolution urges the government to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and amend the Online Safety Act, Tamil representatives have dismissed these calls as “repetitive and toothless”, noting that similar recommendations have been made for years without consequence.
The draft also refers to the identification of multiple mass grave sites across the island and calls for exhumations in accordance with international standards, urging Sri Lanka to seek international technical and financial assistance.
It further highlights the need to strengthen the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) and to ensure independent investigation into emblematic human rights cases, including the Easter Sunday bombings.
However, Tamil groups have stressed that these provisions do not go far enough, criticising the resolution for recognising the Sri Lankan government’s “anti-corruption efforts” and supposed commitment to new prosecutorial bodies, while ignoring ongoing militarisation and surveillance in the North-East.
For Tamil families of the disappeared and victims of state violence, the resolution represents another instance of international delay and deference, an approach they say continues to deny justice more than sixteen years after the Mullivaikkal genocide.