File photograph: Tamil families of the disappeared at their continuous protest in Vavuniya
Four United Nations special rapporteurs have written to the Sri Lankan government warning that its proposed law on non-governmental organisations is inconsistent with the right to freedom of association and could restrict human rights defenders and civic space.
The communication , dated 28 September and issued as OL LKA 5/2026, was signed by Ben Saul, the special rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism; Leopoldo Maldonado Gutiérrez on freedom of opinion and expression; Gina Romero on freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and Andrea Bolaños Vargas on the situation of human rights defenders.
"I join UN experts in raising concern that Sri Lanka's NGO Bill is inconsistent with the right to freedom of association and could restrict human rights defenders, civil society and civic space," Saul said.
I join UN experts in raising concern that Sri Lanka's NGO Bill is inconsistent with the right to freedom of association and could restrict human rights defenders, civil society and civic space https://t.co/7zSjE6UjPg pic.twitter.com/Eqq9G0WyWq
The Non-Governmental Organizations (Registration and Supervision) Bill 2026 would replace the Voluntary Social Services Organisations Act of 1980. The rapporteurs note that it is reportedly tied to Sri Lanka's Financial Action Task Force mutual evaluation, due this month.
The rapporteurs set out a series of objections to the Bill as drafted.
Registration would be mandatory, with criminal penalties for non-compliance including fines of up to a million rupees. Organisations would be obliged to align with the policies of the government and to avoid activities affecting sovereignty or territorial integrity, obligations the rapporteurs describe as vague.
Authorities would be able to enter any premises without a search warrant, upon prior notice. Organisations could be suspended or deregistered on broad grounds, among them prima facie evidence of financial irregularities or activities deemed a threat to national security. Crowdfunding would require prior notification to the authorities. Information could be shared with terrorism financing authorities in ways the rapporteurs say may breach privacy protections.
They invoked Article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which protects freedom of association, and the Human Rights Committee's General Comment 37, under which restrictions must not be discriminatory, impair the essence of the right, or be aimed at discouraging participation. They cited Human Rights Council resolution 22/6, requiring registration procedures to be transparent, accessible, non-discriminatory, expeditious and inexpensive, and Sri Lanka's own Personal Data Protection Act of 2022 alongside Article 17 of the Covenant on privacy.
On the FATF question, they pointed to Recommendation 8, which requires a risk-based and proportionate approach to countering terrorist financing rather than blanket restriction of the sector.
The rapporteurs asked the government for its observations, for an explanation of how the Bill is consistent with freedom of association and with counter-terrorism standards, whether it will be withdrawn or substantially revised to comply with international law, and confirmation that it will be gazetted and put to representative and inclusive consultation.
The organisations the Bill would govern include those that have sustained Tamil civil society through the years since the armed conflict: the district associations of the relatives of the enforcedly disappeared, which organised protests across the North-East last week over the removal of the Thileepan statue; the land rights groups at Myliddy, Keppapilavu and Mayilaththamadu; and the organisations documenting disappearances and mass graves.
Those groups already operate under pressure that the Bill would formalise. Frontline Defenders has already condemned the persecution and reprisals directed at Tamil protesters in Batticaloa.
A requirement to align with the policies of the government, and a power to deregister organisations whose activities are deemed to affect sovereignty or territorial integrity, would reach directly into groups whose purpose is to contest the state's account of what happened in the North-East.
The same rapporteurs' mandates wrote to the government in February over the Protection of the State from Terrorism Bill, the proposed replacement for the Prevention of Terrorism Act, which was gazetted last month.
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