Tamil Guardian editorial, , London, September 15, 2025
To call the latest draft resolution from the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva disappointing would be far too kind. It is not simply a missed opportunity, but a disastrous step backwards in the long and painful struggle for justice for the Tamil people. Sixteen years after the genocide at Mullivaikkal, with mass graves still being unearthed and families still protesting on the streets, the Council has chosen to dilute its demands rather than strengthen them. Instead of acknowledging Sri Lanka’s entrenched culture of impunity, the latest draft echoes the same cycle of platitudes that has betrayed victims for more than a decade. At a time when evidence of war crimes is mounting and Tamil demands for international justice have grown louder, Geneva has inexplicably chosen retreat over resolve.
The draft resolution, whilst continuing to keep Sri Lanka on the Council’s agenda, represents a significant weakening from previous resolutions. It begins by welcoming the superficial words of Sri Lankan officials, while wilfully ignoring their more telling actions. The acknowledgement of “decades of divisive racist politics” may sound progressive, but it rings hollow when military occupation of the Tamil homeland continues unchecked, when arrests and harassment of activists persist, and when families of the disappeared are still met with intimidation. Volker Türk’s visit to the island is praised as evidence of “engagement and dialogue”, yet Sri Lanka’s repeated rejection of Council resolutions and its outright refusal to comply with their demands is conveniently brushed aside. What emerges is not an honest appraisal of Colombo’s behaviour, but a whitewashed narrative that elevates rhetoric over reality.
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ost glaring of all is the omission of calls for foreign judges, a demand that was forcefully articulated in the 2015 resolution. That call explicitly recognised that international involvement was essential in bringing credibility to any accountability mechanism going forward. A decade on, the lesson seems to have been forgotten. Instead of building on that foundation, the latest draft retreats, deferring once more to Colombo’s hollow pledges of yet another domestic whitewash – this time labelled an “independent public prosecutorial body”.
This is a horrific misstep. Decades of Sri Lankan “domestic accountability” efforts have produced nothing but cover-ups. From the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) to the countless commissions before and after, not a single perpetrator of mass atrocities has ever been held to account. Every process has been marked by delay, denial and impunity. Successive regimes have shown themselves both unwilling and incapable of delivering justice. The current administration is no different.
While the National People’s Power (NPP) eagerly targets its political rivals, arresting and evicting former presidents, it has taken no meaningful step to prosecute war criminals, dismantle the suffocating military occupation of the North-East, end Sinhala Buddhist colonisation, or devolve power to Tamils. Even their pre-election pledge to end the use of the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) lies in tatters, as they continue to deploy it to detain Tamils, Muslims and even drug suspects. To once again entrust Colombo with the responsibility of justice is a cruel insult to victims who have already endured decades of international betrayal.
The Tamil people have been clear and remarkably consistent. Since the first resolution on Sri Lanka was passed at the Council in 2012, they have repeatedly warned that left in the hands of Colombo, accountability will never be delivered. More than a decade later, they have been proven right.
The continuation of the Sri Lanka Accountability Project (SLAP) is welcome, but if its carefully collected evidence is fed only into yet another racist and flawed Sri Lankan domestic mechanism, it will be rendered meaningless. At a time when conflicts in Gaza, Sudan and Ukraine have highlighted how the UNHRC risks becoming obsolete, on Sri Lanka it has seemingly been reduced simply to stage toothless resolutions, while victims’ demands are ignored and perpetrators live freely.
There is still time to salvage this moment. The draft resolution must be strengthened with sterner language and concrete action. But more fundamentally, the international community must look beyond the UNHRC. For years, the Council has repeated the same cycle of reports and resolutions, while justice is indefinitely postponed. Member states must now make use of SLAP’s evidence to pursue prosecutions under universal jurisdiction and impose targeted sanctions on those accused of war crimes.
The call for international justice cannot be deferred any longer. Sri Lanka has shown, again and again, that it will not deliver. It is time for others to act.