The United States says there were no reports of enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka by or on behalf of government authorities in 2024.
The US State Department said the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) also reported it had not received any new complaints of missing persons or enforced disappearances in the past year.
This was highlighted in the 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices issued by the US State Department.
Meanwhile, the US State Department stated Sri Lankan authorities continue to cite the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) act, and the penal code to arrest and punish critics of the government and deter criticism of government policies or officials.
According to the US State Department, there were reports of harassment and intimidation of Sri Lankan journalists covering sensitive topics.
The annual report by the US State Department stated, “Some journalists in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, including citizen journalists, reported harassment, threats, intimidation, and interference from members of state security services, especially when reporting on topics related to the civil war or its aftermath, including missing persons.”
The US State Department also noted that although the Online Safety Act (OSA) drew sharp criticism from civil society activists, who feared government restrictions on online speech would stifle dissent, as well as from tech sector professionals, no amendments have been made thus far by the government.
The US State Department report highlighted that although the present government made a commitment to making revisions to the OSA, it has not taken any initiatives.
Furthermore, according to the US State Department report there was little progress investigating allegations of alleged abuses from the 1983-2009 civil war or from the 1988-89 Marxist insurrection.
The 2024 Report on Human Rights Practices in Sri Lanka also said the government took minimal steps to identify and punish officials who committed human rights abuses.
The US State Department released its long-awaited reports on international human rights on Tuesday, and had drastically reduced the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Donald Trump deems worthy of criticism.
The agency said the “streamlined” human rights reports adhere more closely to what’s required to be in them by law. But critics say the reduced content lets authoritarians off the hook.
Since the 1970s, the U.S. has compiled these reports on every country in the world, highlighting abuses such as restrictions on free assembly, unfair elections and punishment of minority groups.
