FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION, opening the investigation. Without publicly ASSOCIATION AND ASSEMBLY providing reasons for its decision, the The crackdown on dissent continued. The Attorney General’s Office decided not to government targeted human rights proceed with charges against Wasantha defenders, journalists, lawyers, members of Karannagoda, a former Navy commander, the opposition and criminal investigators and over his alleged role in the enforced expanded its scope to include university disappearance of 11 Tamils in 2008 and students, academics, trade unionists and 2009. The Sri Lankan Navy is alleged to have social media commentators. In May, the been responsible for the forcible Secretary to the Ministry of Health issued an disappearance of the so-called “Navy 11”. order threatening disciplinary action against The UN Human Rights Council passed health sector employees who spoke to the resolution 46/1 with a view to advancing media about difficulties in tackling the accountability in Sri Lanka. The resolution Covid-19 pandemic. established an international mechanism for There were protests over long-standing OHCHR to collect, consolidate, analyse and salary issues for teachers and principals. preserve information and evidence and to Demonstrators also called for the withdrawal develop strategies for future accountability of a controversial education bill; some processes for gross violations of human rights activists were arrested, in some cases or serious violations of international spending more than 75 days in detention. humanitarian law. In an online meeting organized by the Sri Under the leadership of the controversial Lanka Judges Institute in August, judicial former Supreme Court judge Upali officers were given instructions by non- Abeyratne, the Office on Missing Persons judicial officers on controlling public (OMP) opened a new office in the North and gatherings during the Covid-19 pandemic. announced plans to “verify” the 21,374 The instructions followed widespread protests cases collated by its former members. By the by trade unions, and the judicial officers end of the year, the OMP’s official caseload reportedly felt pressured to deliver court stood at 14,988, with no clear explanation for orders preventing such protests. having dropped more than 6,000 missing The government announced law reform persons cases. New members were initiatives to regulate the work of NGOs, appointed; there was lack of clarity over potentially hindering the right to freedom of whether the leadership changed. association. The cabinet of ministers approved policies RIGHT TO TRUTH, JUSTICE AND and guidelines produced by the Office for REPARATION Reparations, which related to reparations for victims of the armed conflict and civil or In emblematic cases which implicated political unrest. The document was not made members of the military or government public by the end of the year. Law supporters, either the suspects were enforcement officers brought court orders acquitted or the cases were withdrawn by the against war-related memorialization initiatives Attorney General. Other cases failed to under the guise of Covid-19 restrictions, and progress. The trial relating to the enforced arrested those taking part. disappearance in 2010 of journalist Prageeth ARBITRARY ARRESTS AND DETENTIONS Eknaligoda was postponed multiple times, owing in part to Covid-19 restrictions. The authorities continued to detain hundreds Suspects in the 2005 assassination of Tamil of Muslims arrested in connection with MP Joseph Pararajasingham, including those bombings in April 2019, under the from a government-aligned political party, Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). were acquitted and the Attorney General’s Activist and lawyer Hejaaz Hizbullah, who Office did not indicate any interest in re- was also arbitrarily arrested under the PTA in Amnesty International Report 2021/22 345