Political Commentary

The government is preparing to meet the challenge of the UN Human Rights Council next month. A Sri Lankan delegation led by Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath is expected to attend the 63rd session of the UNHRC in Geneva, where the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will present a written update on Sri Lanka. The government has already submitted its response to the advance version of the report prepared by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The Foreign Minister, accompanied by officials from Colombo and Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission in Geneva, is expected to explain the progress made on reconciliation, accountability and human rights. This is therefore an important moment for the government. It is an opportunity not merely to defend its record but to make new commitments.

It appears that the die has been cast on the 22nd Amendment. The government appears unshaken in its determination to ensure its passage into law. From the government’s perspective, the 22nd Amendment and associated legislation, by increasing the tenure of all judges by two years, will give them the extra time to complete their existing cases, among others. This will do away with the need to change judges midstream and have complex legal cases go back to the beginning, which has too often been the case. The completion of these cases will be to the benefit of the victims who have waited for decades for justice in some cases. It will also be to the government’s benefit as many of the wrongdoers are those in the political opposition. In the past, human rights and democracy activists, not to mention lawyers in the field, have bemoaned the manner in which court cases have got delayed for a variety of reasons, including judges being promoted or transferred midstream or reaching the age of retirement.

The tabling of the 22nd Amendment has brought the significance of constitutional change once again to the centre of public attention.

The controversy surrounding the proposal has become larger than the question of two additional years for judges. It has raised a more fundamental question about the direction in which the new government is taking Sri Lanka. In its 2024 election manifesto, the NPP promised to introduce a new constitution while implementing the existing constitutional framework till then. It pledged to hold long overdue provincial council elections within a year, and implement the constitutional guarantees already contained in the existing Constitution. It therefore has to think beyond whether it can secure the numbers to pass an amendment and whether the manner in which it exercises its majority strengthens or weakens confidence.

Sri Lanka is witnessing an unprecedented effort to challenge a culture of impunity, with senior political figures, public officials and others facing investigation and prosecution. The significance of the present moment is whether Sri Lanka can establish a system in which no person, regardless of political position or social status, is above the law. The credibility of accountability depends significantly on an independent judiciary capable of deciding difficult cases without fear or favour. It is in this context that the government proposal to amend Article 107(5) of the Constitution to raise the mandatory retirement age of Supreme Court judges from 65 to 67 and that of Court of Appeal judges from 63 to 65 has attracted particular attention. The government has also approved amendments to the legislation governing the other courts to increase their retirement ages by two years.

More than seven years after the Easter Sunday bombings ripped through churches and luxury hotels, the first major criminal convictions of senior state officials have taken place. Last week, former Inspector General of Police (IGP) Pujith Jayasundera and former Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando were convicted by a two to one majority at a Trial-at-Bar of criminal liability arising from their failure to act on repeated intelligence warnings that preceded the attacks. They were sentenced to death. One of the parents who had filed action before the Supreme Court regarding the Easter bombing wept when interviewed after the verdict was announced. In response to the journalist’s query whether he felt vindicated by the decision, he replied that it would not bring back his son and daughter.

Forty three years after the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983, Sri Lanka still carries the burden of an injustice that has never been adequately acknowledged or remedied. The destruction of lives, homes and livelihoods on a hitherto unprecedented scale, in the capital city of Colombo and elsewhere, shattered the confidence of the Tamil community in the ability of the state to protect all its citizens equally. The passage of time does not diminish the responsibility of the state, nor can what happened be glossed over in the name of moving forward. Successive governments have failed to provide adequate redress to those who suffered. The unresolved issue of compensation for lives lost and property destroyed remains a source of deep grievance among survivors and their families, particularly when compared with the compensation provided to victims of more recent man-made disasters.

Sri Lanka today is one of the more peaceful countries in the world. The Global Peace Index ranks it 57th out of 173 countries, a jump of more than 30 places in the past year. However, it must never be forgotten that Sri Lanka has also experienced periods of gruesome violence. To forget these periods or gloss over them is to risk repeating them. These include the two JVP insurrections of 1971 and 1988-89 and the recurring phases of the Eelam war from 1983 to 2009. But of all these periods of violence, the anti-Tamil violence of July 1983 stands apart. For a whole week from July 23, the country was set on fire with the Tamil people at the receiving end. One part of the government planned the conflagration while the other was paralysed and failed to protect innocent Tamil lives. In the main prison in Colombo, Tamil prisoners were massacred. Virtually the entire Tamil population of Colombo was evacuated to Jaffna.

The government’s proposed NGO law is a heavy-handed piece of legislation. The government’s justification is that regulating NGOs is necessary to comply with the requirements of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) which is an inter-governmental body that among other things aims to address issues of terrorist financing and money laundering. Furtherm that there is a sense of urgency because the government is required to respond to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) before October. NGOs are one of 17 sectors in which the FATF expects the government to demonstrate measures to address terrorist financing and money laundering risks. However, in its present form, this proposed law can alienate many NGOs, even those that broadly support the government’s reform agenda.

The prison violence in Negombo has become the first major crisis to confront the government since it came to power. The government may or may not be responsible for creating the conditions that have accumulated over decades and made the prison system a powder keg. The fact is the government's Ratama Ekata anti-drug crackdown boosted the countrywide prison population from 28,000 in late 2024 to 41,000 in 2026. The conditions of imprisonment include chronic overcrowding, poor infrastructure, inadequate staffing, the penetration of organised crime and drug networks into prisons, and the long neglect of prison reform by successive governments. The Negombo prison was housing approximately 2,600 inmates at the time of the clashes although it was built for only about 650. By the time order was restored, 29 people, including seven prison officers, had lost their lives and more than one hundred others had been injured.

Cyclone Ditwah was the most destructive natural disaster to strike Sri Lanka since the 2004 tsunami. More than 640 people lost their lives, over 170 remain missing and more than 2.2 million people throughoþut the country were affected. Estimates placed the economic cost at over US$4 billion, equivalent to about four percent of Sri Lanka’s Gross Domestic Product. Sri Lanka could not cope with a disaster of this scale alone. International assistance was essential and it came quickly. India was the first country to send emergency relief, technical expertise and assistance to restore damaged infrastructure. Other South Asian countries also contributed humanitarian assistance. The Maldivian people collected and gave more than their government. This response was significant for reasons that went beyond humanitarian relief. It showed that person-to-person sympathies in South Asia can transcend nationality and religion.

Sri Lankans have reason to take satisfaction in their country’s latest international achievement. Sri Lanka has climbed 14 places in the 2026 Global Peace Index to rank 67 in the world out of 163 countries that were assessed. At a time when global peacefulness is reported to be at its lowest level since the inception of the Index, and when more countries are experiencing deterioration than improvement, Sri Lanka’s progress stands out. The ranking reflects the country’s recovery from nearly three decades of war, its efforts to strengthen political stability and public security, and its resilience in overcoming the economic and political crises of recent years. The Global Peace Index assesses the strength of institutions, societal safety and security, and the capacity of societies to manage conflict peacefully.

The legal processes are steadily closing in on some of the most controversial cases that have remained as open questions without closure for many years. These include the Easter Sunday bombings of 2019, the Central Bank bond scandal that erupted in 2015, and a range of corruption allegations that became synonymous with successive governments over the past two or more decades. What once appeared to be stalled investigations are now showing signs of movement through the courts and investigative agencies. Recent developments suggest that these long running cases are entering a decisive phase. In the Easter Sunday attacks investigation, new arrests and investigations have brought renewed attention to allegations that extend beyond the immediate perpetrators and into questions of intelligence failures and possible political complicity. The arrest and detention of former intelligence chief Suresh Sallay under the Prevention of Terrorism Act has intensified public interest in uncovering the full truth behind the attacks.

In their Vesak messages this year, President Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya highlighted the values of reconciliation, coexistencArte and justice as essential to Sri Lanka's future. President Dissanayake emphasised that Buddhism's teachings remain deeply relevant to contemporary society and described Vesak as a symbol of "mutual understanding, unity and coexistence among all communities" and of reconciliation itself. Prime Minister Amarasuriya similarly called for the building of a society in which justice is assured to all irrespective of caste, race or religion. These messages were not merely religious aspirations, they were a direct challenge to the most serious failures in Sri Lanka's post-independence history. These include the three decade long war, its human rights violations and the inability to implement a political solution.

At a symposium on reconciliation organised by the National Peace Council last week, more than 250 religious clergy, civic activists and political representatives from different communities gathered to discuss the country’s future. Speaking at the event, Minister Bimal Rathnayake explained the government’s approach to national reconciliation. He said the government viewed the country’s recovery in terms of a three stage process. The first stage was stabilisation, the second was development and the third was transformation. Reconciliation, he implied, would come in that final stage. The participation of Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa at the same symposium, and the constructive nature of his comments, would strengthen that hope.

Time, it is said, is the great healer. But there are some wounds that will not heal with time. They need specific and focused treatment. The dates May 18 and 19, the two final days of Sri Lanka’s three decade long war, are less in the consciousness of the people than before. But the continuation of the untreated and unhealed wounds of the war continues to be seen in the many groups of people who gather to remember their loved ones on these days. In Colombo, a group of victim families and. committed activists from different communities gathered at Wellawatte beach and lit lamps.. These gatherings are also a political statement that the wounds of the war remain untreated and unhealed.

The death of the most important suspect in the SriLankan Airlines Airbus deal has drawn intense public speculation. Kapila Chandrasena the former CEO of the heavily loss-making national airline was found dead under circumstances that the police are still investigating. He had recently been arrested by the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption in connection with the controversial Airbus aircraft purchase agreement signed in 2013. Police investigations are continuing into the cause of death and whether or not he committed suicide. The unresolved death brings to light the high stakes involved in accountability efforts of this nature.