UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s Planned Visit to Sri Lanka
17-Jun-2025.
At the invitation of the Sri Lankan government, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, is scheduled to undertake an official visit to Sri Lanka from June 23 to 26.
During his visit, he is expected to hold high-level discussions in Colombo and also travel to Kandy, Trincomalee, and Jaffna.
This visit comes just ahead of the UN Human Rights Council’s September session, during which a key resolution concerning Sri Lanka is due to expire.
In this context, several groups — including a coalition of 104 local civil society representatives, international human rights organizations, the Tamil Civil Society Forum, and associations representing families of the disappeared from the North and East — have sent four separate letters to the High Commissioner urging him to postpone his visit.
They argue that his presence prior to September could potentially compromise the gravity and neutrality of the forthcoming report on Sri Lanka.
Despite this appeal, it is now largely confirmed that the visit will go ahead as scheduled. During his stay in Colombo, Volker Türk is expected to meet President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, and several representatives of civil society organizations based in the capital.
He will subsequently travel to Kandy, Trincomalee, and Jaffna. In Jaffna, he is particularly expected to meet with civil society representatives and also with representatives of Tamil national political parties.
Meanwhile, families of the forcibly disappeared from the North and East have sent a letter to the High Commissioner requesting him to include a visit to Mullivaikkal in his itinerary, though this aspect of the visit has not yet been confirmed.
Initially, the visit was scheduled from June 23 to 25 and did not include a visit to Jaffna. However, reliable sources indicate that, following increased resistance and lobbying from civil society organizations, the visit was extended to June 26 to incorporate the Jaffna leg.
