• UN report alleges domestic justice system a continuum of impunity, calls for independent prosecutor’s office
• Justice Ministry yet to study report, says no room for hybrid court system
• Min. of Public Security says accused will be punished if found guilty

Despite the gravity of the findings detailed in the latest comprehensive report of the United Nations (UN) on conflict-related sexual violence in Sri Lanka, issued on 13 January, a disconnect has emerged within the highest levels of the Sri Lankan administration.

In the weeks following the release of the document, which alleges a decade-spanning pattern of systemic abuse and entrenched impunity, key Government figures – including the Minister of Justice, the Minister of Public Security, and the Deputy Minister of Women and Child Affairs – have claimed that they have not yet formally received or reviewed the report.

Attempts to seek clarification from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), which serves as the primary conduit for such international communications, have been met with silence or administrative deflection, raising serious questions about the State’s readiness to address allegations that the UN has called widespread and systemic.

The report, titled ‘Accountability for Conflict-Related Sexual Violence in Sri Lanka,’ goes beyond statistical aggregation. The 2026 brief adopts a survivor-centred approach, drawing on remote consultations to foreground the lived reality of those who had allegedly endured the conflict’s most intimate brutalities.

The findings challenge the persistent narrative that sexual violence during the 1983–2009 civil war was incidental or the result of a few rogue elements. Instead, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) charges that these acts were employed as a strategic tool by State security forces to extract information, assert dominance, and instil a pervasive climate of fear that lingers to this day.

In the allegations detailed in the UN report, survivors described a normalisation of violence where the human body itself became a battlefield. The report documents a spectrum of abuse ranging from opportunistic rape to institutionalised sexual torture in detention centres and high-security checkpoints. The purported victims, disproportionately Tamil civilians and those perceived as Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) affiliates, recounted extreme physical abuse during interrogations, including gang rape, forced nudity, and genital torture.

One survivor recalled how soldiers inserted sharp blades and rods into the bodies of female cadres, stating: “The soldiers inserted sharp blades and rods. Metal parts were coming out of the body.” Others described how male victims had their genitals mutilated, with one account noting: “They cut off the genitals of men to put them in women’s mouths.” The cruelty was often performative and public, intended not just to harm the individual but to humiliate and dismantle entire communities, the report alleges.

Crucially, the report highlights that this violence did not end with the cessation of hostilities in May 2009. The post-conflict culture of violence has seen the transformation of wartime abuses into normalised gender-based violence in peacetime. The UN report claims to have found credible evidence of violations occurring as recently as 2024, where security forces allegedly used sexual torture during interrogations of Tamil individuals.

Sexual violence and devastating social cost

A key finding of the report is the devastating social cost of this impunity. The stigma surrounding sexual violence is so potent that it has created a class of untouchables within the affected communities. Survivors are often ostracised, and women described being abandoned by husbands and rejected by families upon disclosure of their abuse. “We lost everything, our husbands, kids, and dignity. No one can give that back… All we have is this suffering,” the report said, citing a victim.

The report also sheds light on the voiceless male survivors. It notes that men were as likely to be victims of sexual violence as women, but remain silenced by rigid gender norms and a legal framework that does not recognise the rape of men. These men, often targeted for their physical appearance, which served as a proxy for insurgent identity, suffered brutal sexual torture that left many with permanent reproductive injuries and deep psychological scars. One man recounted: “I was 35 and strong, and for that reason I was captured.”

Crushing assessment of domestic justice system

The UN’s assessment of the domestic justice system is crushing.

It describes a “data vacuum” and a “continuum of impunity” where the State has consistently failed to investigate or prosecute these crimes. The report cites a 2011 statistic where, despite 445 reported incidents of sexual violence involving on-duty military personnel, convictions were virtually non-existent. 

The structural barriers are immense, as a 20-year statute of limitations effectively time-bars prosecution for crimes committed before 2005, and claims that the Attorney General’s (AG) Department lacks the independence required to prosecute politically sensitive cases.

To break this cycle, the OHCHR outlines a series of radical reforms. It calls on the Government to publicly acknowledge responsibility by issuing a formal apology and admitting the systemic nature of past violations.

Legal reform is also prioritised, specifically the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act which enables arbitrary detention and torture, and the amendment of the Penal Code to criminalise the rape of men and decriminalise same-sex relations. 

Further recommendations include the establishment of an independent public prosecution office separate from the AG to handle conflict-related crimes and the implementation of comprehensive reparations that go beyond financial compensation to include psychosocial support and guarantees of non-recurrence. 

For the international community, the report recommends the use of universal jurisdiction to prosecute perpetrators in foreign courts and the imposition of targeted sanctions on individuals credibly implicated in these crimes.

No hybrid courts: Justice Ministry stance

Despite the severity of these recommendations, the domestic response has been characterised by caution. Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Minister of Justice and National Integration Harshana Nanayakkara emphasised that he had not yet reviewed the report. 

He stated: “That report may have been received by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. I am not certain to whom it has been forwarded yet, but I have not received this report. Once the report is formally received, if there are matters that require investigation, it will be referred to the relevant agencies and we will be able to provide responses.”

“First, we need to define what constitutes a war crime. War crimes are acts committed during the period of armed conflict that violate international humanitarian law. That said, we investigate all crimes, any crime that has taken place,” he added.

When pressed on the structural impediments identified by the UN, specifically the 20-year statute of limitations that protects perpetrators of pre-2005 offences, the Minister offered a technical defence. He argued: “For certain criminal actions, such as murder, there is no prescription period.”

However, when reminded that many allegations involve torture and sexual violence which do carry prescription limits, he conceded: “That depends on the specific offence. Investigations rely on available evidence, and those investigations are not conducted by my ministry. They fall under the purview of the Ministry of Public Security, which oversees the Police and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). They are responsible for investigations, not the Ministry of Justice.”

Minister Nanayakkara categorically ruled out one of the international community’s longest-standing demands, which is the establishment of hybrid courts involving foreign judges or the accession to the Rome Statute. He stated: “At present, there is no discussion, committee, or commission looking into hybrid courts.” 

When asked if the door remained open for the future, he remained non-committal: “I cannot say at this point. These are matters that are discussed at the Cabinet level before any statements are made to the press.”

Independent verification: ITJP response

The International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP), whose work is often cited in relation to justice in Sri Lanka, responding to a communication by The Sunday Morning, provided a sharp rebuttal to any suggestion that the UN’s findings were merely derivative of NGO reports. 

In a statement to The Sunday Morning, the ITJP clarified the independence of the UN’s methodology. It emphasised: “The ITJP did not provide witnesses or testimony or documentation to the UN SLAP report,” noting that its work is “cited only in footnotes, alongside reports by multiple other NGOs”. (The SLAP report refers to the Sri Lanka Accountability Project by the OHCHR.)

The ITJP elaborated on the distinct methodologies used in the different reports, emphasising that the UN’s findings were independent of NGO documentation. “It seems the UN report is based on individual remote interviews with victims – mainly women, currently living inside Sri Lanka. By contrast, the ITJP report is based on facilitated group consultations primarily with male victims, now living outside Sri Lanka. These processes were methodologically independent. [...] Conflating the two reports risks enabling narratives of denial that falsely portray UN findings as derivative of NGO reporting,” the ITJP stated.

The organisation strongly supported the UN’s findings on the targeting of Tamil men, describing a substantial continuity of violence from the war to the present day. 

“Based on the ITJP’s work, patterns of abuse against Tamil men show substantial continuity between the war and post-war periods, maintaining a clear nexus to the conflict. The victims are overwhelmingly Tamils – from former conflict-areas – and are targeted in connection with exercising their legitimate rights including mourning the dead, seeking answers about the disappeared, documenting violations, collecting human rights evidence, protesting Sinhalisation and military presence, and demanding justice and accountability for the past. Arrest, illegal detention, sexual violence, and release through intermediaries following payment remain recurring features,” the ITJP noted.

Addressing the social fallout

Deputy Minister of Women and Child Affairs Dr. Namal Sudarshana, while also citing a lack of access to the full report, engaged with the social dimensions of the UN’s findings. Responding to the report’s observation that female-headed households in the Northern Province lacked a durable solution, Dr. Sudarshana acknowledged the State’s long-standing failure: “The issue of housing in the Northern Province is a long-standing problem that has remained inadequately addressed for many years.”

Speaking about land used by the armed forces, a key grievance in the report, he asserted the Government’s stance on releasing these properties and proposed a forward-looking policy to convert them into income-generating zones.

“There are also lands and housing units currently under the control of the armed forces, and concerns have been raised regarding alleged misuse of some of these properties. It is not the Government’s intention to retain such lands indefinitely. These properties must be released and redistributed for the benefit of the civilian population in the north. For female-headed households, the establishment of initiatives such as garment factories or similar enterprises could serve as a meaningful economic incentive and provide sustainable livelihoods.”

Regarding the justice mechanism’s failure to serve women, the Deputy Minister highlighted a critical logistical gap in the lack of female Police officers. He revealed that the ministry had formally requested the recruitment of additional female officers, emphasising the necessity of language skills. 

He noted: “Beyond the issue of victims not coming forward, there is also a significant shortage of female Police officers. We have discussed this matter with the relevant DIG of Police and formally requested the recruitment of additional female officers to the Police service. It is also essential that these officers are proficient in Tamil, as every individual must be able to communicate in their own language and record their statements with law enforcement without barriers.”

On the legislative front, he pinned hopes on the newly-established National Women’s Commission to drive reform. “Once the National Women’s Commission is fully constituted and operational, it will play a critical role in addressing policy-level gaps and will have a broad mandate, including the authority to make recommendations on legal reforms. For now there are legal loopholes that we will need to resolve. The issues of the women-headed households in the north and allegations of investigated cases of sexual harassment, along with other issues, once communicated, will yield faster results when this commission is fully operational.”

Defence, security and foreign affairs

While the Ministries of Justice and Women offered cautious procedural responses, the security establishment denied outright the allegations made in the report. Ministry of Defence Spokesperson Brigadier Franklin Joseph issued a blanket rejection of the report’s core allegations.

He stated to The Sunday Morning: “We categorically deny any and all allegations against the armed forces. This does not mean we wish to deny all of the contents of the report. We are yet to formally address what the report entails.”

Minister of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs Ananda Wijepala adopted a tone of conditional accountability. He explained the bureaucratic process regarding UN communications and noted that his ministry had not yet been contacted. “There is a process through which UN documents are communicated to us. The Foreign Ministry receives it and often forwards any queries to the line ministry concerned with the query. If the report exists, then the Foreign Ministry has not referred anything to us yet.”

On the specific allegations of torture, he asserted the Government’s commitment to accountability, while emphasising that action depended on established guilt. “We are a Government of accountability and we do not have anything to lose in investigating any claim of torture. If a Police officer or any other is guilty of any offence, appropriate action will be taken against him.”

The administrative bottleneck appears to lie with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ministry Spokesperson Thushara Rodrigo admitted to a breakdown in communication. He stated that while he had initiated communication with relevant officers, including the Director General of the UN and Human Rights Division of the ministry, on the matter of non-communication with the ministers, he was yet to receive a response two days later. 

With Deputy Minister Arun Hemachandra unavailable due to a family bereavement, the ministry offered no substantive response to the UN’s damning allegations.