For Immediate Release
September 8, 2025
Your Excellencies,
Tamil Rights Group (TRG), a non-profit, global human rights organization advocating for truth, justice, and accountability for crimes committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka, and most urgently, for recognition and justice for the crime of genocide, addresses you ahead of the 60th Session of the Human Rights Council.
We issue this statement at a pivotal moment. In the northern city of Jaffna, the excavation of the Chemmani mass graves is continuing and has reached Phase 2, Day 45 as of September 6th, 2025. To date, 240 human skeletons have been discovered, with 239 fully exhumed. Each body unearthed is a stark reminder of crimes that Sri Lanka has concealed for decades. Each skeleton carries the weight of unanswered questions, unfulfilled justice, and families still searching for closure.
Chemmani is only one among dozens of mass grave sites discovered across the island, from Mannar and Thirukkeatheesvaram to Kokkuthoduvai, Mirusuvil, Kaluwanchikudy, and more. Each site tells the same story: systematic massacres, concealment of bodies, and decades of state denial. These graves are not isolated incidents but interconnected evidence of a campaign of extermination against the Tamil people.
Chemmani is not just a site of atrocity; it is a living testament to genocide. Yet the path to justice remains uncertain. We are seriously concerned that the Human Rights Council, in its current approach, risks falling back on an over dependence on domestic processes. After decades of impunity and repeated cycles of ineffective commissions and inquiries, such reliance would not only let victims down but also undermine the Council’s credibility.
Examples of these failed efforts include: the 1991 and 1993 Commissions into Disappearances, both limited in scope and never producing final reports; the 2006–2009 Commission on Human Rights Violations, which addressed few cases, delivered no justice, and was disbanded without releasing a report; the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (2010–2011), criticized for lacking independence and receiving international condemnation; and the Office on Missing Persons and mass grave investigations (2016–ongoing), which have been largely ineffective and have not led to any successful prosecutions.
The Danger of Domestic Measures
The international community cannot ignore what Tamils know from painful experience: Sri Lanka’s domestic processes have never delivered truth or accountability. From the very first commissions of inquiry to more recent task forces, every so-called mechanism has been plagued by political interference, lack of independence, intimidation of witnesses, and outright denial.
To suggest that Sri Lanka is capable of investigating Chemmani or other mass atrocities is to perpetuate a fiction. For over sixteen years since the war ended, domestic processes have shielded perpetrators, recycled false promises, and entrenched impunity. Survivors, civil society, and Tamil religious leaders inside the country have spoken clearly and consistently: domestic and hybrid mechanisms are illegitimate, untrustworthy, and fundamentally incapable of addressing genocide.
Strengthening International Accountability
The recent discoveries at Chemmani underscore the urgent need for the Council to act decisively. If the Human Rights Council is serious about accountability, then the mandate of the OHCHR Sri Lanka Accountability Project (OSLAP) must be immediately strengthened.
OSLAP must be empowered not only to preserve evidence but also to prepare comprehensive legal files capable of proving genocidal intent, the central element required for prosecution under international law. Without such a mandate, the global community risks allowing critical evidence to dissipate and survivors’ hopes for justice to fade further.
Multiple International Pathways
Accountability for genocide cannot rest on a single track. The following international avenues must be advanced in parallel:
1 | International Court of Justice (ICJ): Member States must initiate proceedings to determine Sri Lanka’s state responsibility for genocide. Under the Genocide Convention, this is not optional but a binding obligation owed to all humanity.
2 | International Criminal Court (ICC): While recognizing its jurisdictional limits for pre-2002 crimes, the ICC remains an essential forum for post-2002 atrocities. Referral by the UN Security Council or Sri Lanka’s accession to the Rome Statute should be pursued.
3 | Special International Criminal Tribunal (ICT): For pre-2002 crimes such as Chemmani, Thirukkeatheesvaram, and other mass graves, a dedicated tribunal must be established to ensure that earlier atrocities do not remain forever beyond reach.
4 | International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism (IIIM/IIMM): As in the case of Syria and Myanmar: A new, fully independent mechanism separate from OHCHR and the Council is essential to gather, preserve, and analyze evidence of genocide for future prosecutions worldwide.
5 | Universal Jurisdiction: While limited, prosecutions under universal jurisdiction provide an important complementary tool. Cases in domestic courts abroad can serve as early steps toward broader accountability. However, these efforts cannot substitute for a UN-backed process with the authority to establish genocide as a legal and historical truth.
Our Call to Action
TRG therefore urges the following:
- Reject domestic and hybrid mechanisms outright. They have failed for decades and will continue to fail.
- Strengthen OSLAP’s mandate to explicitly investigate genocide and prepare case files demonstrating genocidal intent.
- Establish a roadmap for ICJ proceedings on Sri Lanka’s state responsibility for genocide.
- Create or empower an IIIM/IIMM-style mechanism, independent of OHCHR, with full temporal jurisdiction.
- Pursue a Special International Tribunal or ICC referral to ensure no crimes, including Chemmani, remain outside legal scrutiny.
- Support universal jurisdiction efforts as complementary, but not primary, pathways.
Your Excellencies, the Council stands at a crossroads. To rely once more on Sri Lanka’s domestic measures is to abandon the victims buried in Chemmani and countless other sites. To act decisively, with international mechanisms of real authority, is to affirm the principles of justice that the Human Rights Council was created to uphold.
Sincerely,
Navaratnam Srinarayanadas | President, Tamil Rights Group
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
For all media enquiries: Katpana Nagendra, General Secretary and Spokesperson | katpana@tamilrightsgroup.org | + 1 (778) 870-5824
