by US Department of State, Washington, DC, August 12, 2025
Sri Lanka Human Rights Report US State Dept 2024
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
After the widely contested September 21 presidential elections and November 14 snap parliamentary elections, civil society groups called on the first voter-elected presidential administration since 2022 to build on the demands for good governance and respect for rights expressed in the 2022 “Aragalaya” nationwide protest movement, which resulted in the ouster of the then-president.
Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: arbitrary or unlawful killings; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment; involuntary or coercive medical or psychological practices; arbitrary arrest or detention; transnational repression against individuals in another country; and serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence and threats of violence against journalists, unjustified arrests of journalists, and censorship.
The government took minimal steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses…
b. Coercion in Population Control
There were no reports of coerced abortion but civil society reported involuntary sterilization occurred.
Civil society organizations reported involuntary sterilization affected some marginalized communities experiencing acute poverty, especially Tamil plantation workers, when government doctors in state-run hospitals opted for caesareans when delivering babies so that it was possible to perform sterilization at the same time, following consent only from the woman’s husband. They reported these doctors did not always obtain consent from the woman.