Transitional Justice and Terrorism: The Case of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka has experienced a 26-year-long civil war between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ended in 2009 with the defeat of the latter. Since the end of the conflict, Sri Lanka has engaged in a transitional justice process, which has been characterised by a multiplication of truth-seeking mechanisms and a disregard for victims’ needs. Currently, the government is establishing a new truth commission despite the disaccord of several civil society organisations and victims. Additionally, the proposed new Counter Terrorism Bill intended to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act raises a lot of concerns as it does not meet, like its predecessor, international human rights standards. Although transitional justice tools have produced favourable results for addressing crimes committed by terrorist groups and state actors in other contexts, (such as in Northern Ireland, the Basque country, and, most recently, Colombia), Sri Lanka still struggles to deal with its past. The present policy brief argues that the failure of Sri Lanka to address violations committed by the LTTE and by the state through transitional justice mechanisms is due to the absence of certain required conditions for the application and success of transitional justice in a post-war and post-terrorism context, and not to an inherent incapacity of transitional justice to be applied in such context. The policy brief discusses these conditions in detail, demonstrates their absence in the Sri Lankan context, and the failure of any transitional justice procedure under the current circumstances. In doing so, it adds a new case study to the emerging debate on the role of transitional justice in the context of counter-terrorism.