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As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk prepares to visit Sri Lanka from June 23-26, 2025, the Oakland Institute calls on the United Nations to address Sri Lanka government’s past and ongoing land grabs and human rights violations targeting Tamils in the country. Sixteen years since the end of the civil war, the Tamil population – marginalized and persecuted since the country’s independence in 1948 – still awaits justice.

The High Commissioner’s visit presents an opportunity to increase international pressure on the Sri Lankan government for accountability. In the past month, a mass grave containing human remains of at least 19 individuals, including several infants and children, was uncovered in Chemmani village, near Jaffna city in in the North-East of Sri Lanka. The Institute joins calls of families of the disappeared, who demand international monitoring of the exhumations in light of decades of impunity and failures to investigate previous mass grave discoveries.

To fully assess the situation on the ground, Mr. Türk should visit key sites across the Northern Province – including Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu, Vavuniya, and Mannar – and the Eastern Province, including Trincomalee, Batticaloa, and Amparai. Families of the disappeared have also requested that Mr. Türk visit Mullivaikkal, where up to 169,796 Tamils remain missing and are “presumed dead” following the massacres committed by the Sri Lankan army at the end of the war in 2009.

These field visits will help assess and witness the ongoing military occupation, land grabs, surveillance, intimidation, and systematic erasure of Tamil heritage. Perpetuating decades of oppression and colonization, the construction of Buddhist temples (viharas) on land illegally expropriated from Tamil communities continues unabated. In Thaiyiddy, Jaffna, protests against the construction of an illegal vihara have been repressed by state security forces. This is key part of a strategy deployed by successive regimes to ultimately erase the Tamil history and culture. Tamil Members of Parliament from the North-East who have spoken out about injustices are faced with police investigations, summons, and intimidation – in violation of national law. 

As extensively documented by the Oakland Institute, hundreds of thousands of Tamil remain displaced from their lands and homes as the colonization of their lands continues. Government-led efforts to divide the contiguous Tamil homeland by separating the North and East have intensified. This is being done through irrigation schemes, military settlements, archaeological reservations, wildlife sanctuaries, forest reserves and Buddhization. The North-East is still under heavy military occupation, which severely impacts daily life of the residents. 

The unwavering struggle of Tamils for justice and accountability – both within Sri Lanka and across the diaspora – has helped maintain international pressure on the Sri Lankan government. We are encouraged by past calls of Mr. Türk to the government to address the root causes of conflict and undertake deep constitutional and institutional reforms to close the accountability gap and advance reconciliation. Despite the end of the Rajapaksa era, President Dissanayake’s administration has maintained much of the same policies of its predecessors. The draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act remains in use to arbitrarily detain people for exercising the right to freedom of expression protected by international law.

The High Commissioner’s visit and the ongoing 59th session of the UN Human Rights Council are critical to catalyze international action.  The Sri Lankan government should be held accountable for violations and abuses of international human rights, humanitarian law, and crimes against humanity. It must be pressured to demilitarize, return stolen land, and resettle displaced communities in the North-East. These steps are essential to initiate a credible process of truth-telling, justice, reparations, and a political solution that addresses longstanding Tamil grievances. With hopes for peace and reconciliation long deferred, it is imperative that the global community sustains its commitment to justice for victims, survivors, and their families.

Top photo: People protesting in front of an Army camp in Keppapulavu in the Mullaithivu District demanding the release of their lands.