The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) [official website] reported [text, DOC] Friday that Sri Lanka has made slow progress towards establishing transitional justice. According to the report, while various ad hoc bodies of justice have been set up, these bodies have yet to present a sufficiently convincing or comprehensive transitional justice strategy to overcome the legacy of mistrust and skepticism that was created by the previous systems of justice. The report notes that while there have been positive strides towards a reliable system [press release] of justice, the structures set up and measures taken have been inadequate and lacked coordination and a sense of urgency.

The global community has been calling on the Sri Lankan government [BBC profile] to create more accountability. Last month the Sri Lankan Foreign Minster said that the country will petition the UN [JURIST report] for more time to investigate the allegations of war crimes occurring during the country’s 26-year-long civil war. Sri Lanka promised the UN in 2015 to investigate the estimated 65,000 missing peoples from the civil war with the Tamil Tigers. In January a Sri Lankan panel of the Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms recommended the appointment of a hybrid court composed of local and international judges to oversee the adjudication of allegations of war crimes committed during the nation’s civil war [JURIST report]. Late last year the UN Independent Expert on minority issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye urged the Sri Lankan government to better protect minorities [JURIST report]. The UN released a report in 2015 finding that war crimes may have been committed [JURIST report] during the war. Later in 2015 the President of Sri Lanka rejected [JURIST report] a UN recommendation for international involvement in its domestic investigation of the war crimes.