GENEVA, Aug 22: The United Nations Human Rights Office on Thursday said basic freedoms in Sri Lanka were under threat, as the country gears up to elect a new president in September.
A report published Thursday by the UN agency stressed that Sri Lanka, which will hold its first presidential vote since recovering from a deep economic crisis, has not reformed its human rights protection system despite vowing to do so.
Instead, laws and bills introduced since 2023 have given "broad powers to the security forces" and expanded "restrictions on freedom of expression and opinion and association", OHCHR said.
"This trend is particularly concerning as the country is in an important pre-election period," UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said in a statement.
OHCHR also highlighted the "erosion of democratic checks and balances, ongoing threats and intimidation against civil society and journalists, and recurrence" of past rights violations.
The state has continued to arbitrarily arrest and detain people, the report said, citing recent cases including "torture and deaths in custody". —AFP
