Sri Lanka: Executive Summary

Overall Score: 6

This assessment was completed in 2022.

Thirteen years after the government declared military victory over resistance forces from the country’s Tamil population, Sri Lanka’s severe economic problems are revealing the full costs of group-based exclusions and inequalities. The Global Pluralism Monitor report for Sri Lanka concentrates on religious and ethnic lines of diversity with a sensitivity to socioeconomic cleavages. The report focusses on the possibilities for strengthening pluralism in meaningful ways to benefit all peoples.

Rooted in Sri Lanka’s foundation are strong, group-based majoritarian tendencies that persist today and underpin deep inequalities and conflict. Political parties routinely undermine democracy by developing exclusionary policies to win elections. In turn, these policies contribute to deep group-based divisions. The resulting instability reproduces patterns of governance that maintain exclusion and sources of past conflicts. However, possibilities for change and progress are still present by focussing on genuine reconciliation and reversing the tendency of the government to impose a victor’s peace.

Legal Commitments

Sri Lanka is a signatory to an array of international covenants and instruments that promote pluralism, though implementation lacks in critical respects such as justice for possible war crimes. The establishment of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) in 1997 served to strengthen the country’s international and domestic commitments, which can play a role in the implementation of these commitments. However, the HRCSL is facing challenges to its independence because of recent constitutional reform.

There are many challenges to strengthening the legal foundations for a more pluralistic Sri Lanka. In particular, there is a lack of accountability for human rights violations over the course of the decades-long conflict. For example, the government has rejected individual complaint mechanisms for international commitments and challenges to the HRCSL’s independence. This move directly impedes the process of seeking justice for enforced disappearances and alleged war crimes.

Practices and Leadership

A significant gap exists in the state’s willingness to recruit people equally into the public service. It is estimated that demographic minorities such as Sri Lankan Tamils, Indian Tamils and Muslims constitute less than 10 percent of the civil service and less than 5 percent of the military. Analysts note, for example, that while public protest is a right held by all, the state is more responsive to claims made by the demographic majority. This reality is supported by language in the Constitution that accords privileged status to the Sinhalese Buddhist majority.

The multifaceted lived experiences of minority groups are often made invisible by government policies and data collection methods. For example, group-based social and economic data are not gathered. As a result, living conditions can only be loosely inferred from geographic data on gender equality. The data on experiences of ethnic and religious minority women are not gathered despite the increased vulnerability of these women to violence and abuse in militarized conditions, especially for female-headed households.

Personal laws provide for a wider array of rights for Sri Lankans of different faiths and beliefs. This can serve as the basis for building out measures to strengthen pluralism. Unfortunately, current efforts to take forward the ‘One Country, One Law’ policy, which intends to reduce the scope of current personal laws, places this opportunity for pluralism at significant risk.

Group-based Inequalities and Inter-group Relations and Belonging

Underrepresentation is severe, especially in national and state-level political leadership. None of the 32 government ministries at the national level were led by an individual from an ethnoreligious minority in 2021. Additionally, only one of the 42 state-level ministries, operating at the subnational level, was led by a member of a minority community. While the Monitor assessment was being conducted, only one of the 27 cabinet ministers was a woman and only 13 of the 225 seats in the national legislature were occupied by women.

There is an opportunity to further develop the contributions of women to all sectors of society in Sri Lanka. Free access to education underpins Sri Lanka’s high literacy rate; and, in fact, female enrollment in secondary education is slightly higher than male enrollment. However, the disproportionate number of women in vulnerable economic sectors, such as those facing exploitative conditions on plantations and in the garment industry, cascades into wider group-based inequalities. Ensuring equitable access to high quality education along with efforts to better include women in the economy and government may help to expand the significant contributions women can make.

Monitor Takeaways

High levels of voter participation exist in Sri Lanka, and yet notable challenges remain for fair and equal representation for all. This reality offers a point of reflection about how certain democratic norms, such as voter turnout, can actually inhibit and even possibly prevent efforts to strengthen pluralism. Sri Lanka’s democratic system encourages strong majoritarianism and antagonism of ethnic groups for political gain. These tendencies stymie efforts to foster stronger pluralistic policies and practices.

There is an understanding emerging in the population that the hyper-majoritarian leanings of the state are entwined with the country’s current socioeconomic struggle.

In the decades following the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), the government has imposed a ‘victor’s peace’, which diminishes the need for reconciliation. This trend maintains status quo policies and practices, as evidenced by the perpetuation of heightened militarization. However, there is an understanding emerging in the population that the hyper-majoritarian leanings of the state are entwined with the country’s current socioeconomic struggles. The unsustainability of this situation creates a potential window for change, especially given recent political will to achieve meaningful reconciliation.

A shift to meaningful reconciliation, that seeks justice for war crimes and disappearances, offers the possibility for shaping a more inclusive national narrative as well as more pluralistic policies and practices that will address the legacies of devastating conflict.

• Codify the island as a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious and multi-cultural country in a new Constitution, the development of which was proposed during the 43^rd session of the UNHCR in Geneva. This could play a pivotal role in diminishing the influence of preferential policies directed at some groups and could serve as the framework for laws and policies that espouse pluralism.
• Collaborate with non-governmental organizations to train civil servants on pluralism. This work could include further bilingualism training for higher level bureaucrats and public servants. Public services provided in both official languages will improve citizens’ access.
• Revert to merit-based practices to promote equal representation of all ethnic and religious groups in the public service. In doing so, citizens are treated equally.
• Reactivate District Reconciliation Committees (DRCs) to help mitigate ethno-religious tensions and promote active engagement across communities. This work can support the country in its efforts for broader reconciliation by promoting conflict resolution at the local levels.
• Establish a Pluralism and Equal Rights Commission that promotes pluralism in society. This Commission could work on issues identified in the fundamental rights chapter of the Constitution and could refer any proposed law to the Supreme Court with observations related to how such laws may promote or hinder pluralism.