The following is based on a communication sent by the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and other UN human rights experts to the Government of Sri Lanka on 29 July 2025. The communication remained confidential for 60 days before being made public, giving the Government time to reply. The Government replied on 16 September 2025, requesting an extension until 30 October 2025. Unfortunately, no further reply has been received to date. If more replies are received, they will be posted on the UN Special Procedures communications database.
On 1 October 2025, officers at the Dematagoda Police Station informed Mr. Sudesh Nandimal Silva that the investigation regarding the threats against him was completed and submitted to the Inspector General of Police. Mr. Silva had lodged a complaint with the Dematagoda Police in March 2025. The investigation is pending the Inspector General’s review, after which further investigations or actions may be taken. According to the officers, Mr. Silva remains under serious threats and recommended to take additional security measures to ensure his safety. This was reiterated at a meeting on 28 October 2025 with the National Authority for the Protection of Victims of Crime and Witnesses, with whom Mr. Silva also lodged a complaint in March 2025.
This is a shorter version of the original communication.
BACKGROUND
Topic: the intimidation of and alleged threats made against human rights defender and trade union leader Mr. Sudesh Nandimal Silva in March 2025.
Mr. Sudesh Nandimal Silva is a human rights defender and Chairman of the Committee for Protecting the Rights of Prisoners (CPRP), a non-governmental organisation which advocates for the rights of prisoners in Sri Lanka. The organisation, comprised of former prisoners, lawyers and human rights defenders, provides legal aid to prisoners and their families, conducts campaigns for improved prison conditions, and raises cases of alleged torture and deaths of detainees. In 1996, Mr. Silva was involved in the formation of a trade union in the Sri Lanka Railways company, where he is employed, and was the founding treasurer of what came to be the Railways Workers, Labourers & Employees Collective, and later the General Secretary. Both Mr. Silva and the CPRP have been engaged in public advocacy for justice in the years since the killing of 27 prisoners by members of the defence forces during a riot at Welikada Prison, Colombo on 9-10 November 2012, commonly referred to as the Welikada Prison Riot.
Special Procedures’ mandate holders have previously raised their concerns with the Government of Sri Lanka concerning the detention, threats and intimidation against human rights defenders, journalists and trade union leaders such as Mr. Sudesh Nandimal Silva and his colleagues in the communication AL LKA 4/2021. We thank the Government for its response to this letter dated 14 October 2021. We regret, however, that the reply does not address the specific allegations of arbitrary arrest, intimidation, and threats raised in relation to the human rights defenders, in particular the incident in which Mr. Silva was shot at by an unknown individual whilst residing at his sister’s apartment. Further, we remain concerned about the safety of witnesses in the Welikada Prison Riot, including Mr. Silva and his colleagues at CPRP, especially since the release of all key suspects.
ALLEGATIONS
Since 2017, Mr. Silva and his organisation, CPRP, have reportedly been subject to a series of online and digital attacks, smear campaigns, surveillance and acts of intimidation by unknown individuals. These have reportedly intensified in recent years following public interventions by CPRP on topics such as police violence, custodial deaths, and the Welikada Prison Riot. One such digital attack occurred on 11 January 2025 when the CPRP Facebook page was hacked, affecting their online advocacy efforts. In January 2025, the organisation was also subjected to a target cyber attack which affected their online communication systems.
Between the hours of 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. on 4 March 2025, Mr. Silva received three phone calls from an unknown number during which the caller reportedly accused the human rights defender of interfering with the work of the caller’s “bosses” and law enforcement by advocating against extrajudicial actions. During the calls, the caller also allegedly made direct threats to Mr. Silva, suggesting that his life was in danger and insinuating knowledge of the human rights defender’s address and a vehicle owned by his colleague. The caller also allegedly boasted about having received a salary which gave him the “right to kill” and reportedly threatened that Mr. Silva’s body would not be found. These alleged threats were made several days after CPRP representatives met with the Deputy Inspector General of Police on 28 February 2025 to raise concerns about a police shooting incident in Crow Island where two prisoners were shot dead during an alleged hidden weapons recovery operation.
On 5 March 2025, Mr. Silva lodged a complaint with the Dematagoda Police regarding the threats he received. There are no updates to this complaint at the time of writing other than the fact that an investigation has been initiated.
On 6 March 2025, the human rights defender lodged a further complaint with the National Authority for the Protection of Crime and Witnesses. On 30 May 2025, Mr. Silva was summoned by the Authority to provide a statement. Following the complaint, police patrol vehicles were deployed, and police officers have been present at Mr. Silva’s residence daily. Despite this security presence, no formal notification of an investigation has been issued.
CONCERNS
In the communication, we express our serious concern at the alleged intimidation of and threats made against human rights defender and trade union leader Mr. Sudesh Nandimal Silva, which appear to be in direct response to his and his organisation’s advocacy for prisoner’s rights. The seeming retaliatory nature of these threats, connected to his exercise of freedom of expression and human rights defense work and the danger to Mr. Silva’s physical integrity is troubling and will create a chilling effect in other human rights defenders across the country.
This concern is compounded by the reported limited action taken by the Sri Lankan Government to respond efficiently and effectively to these threats to mitigate the risks faced by Mr. Silva since 2017, when he began advocating against impunity and for the right to justice of the victims and families of the Welikada Prison Riot. We would like to reiterate the harmful impact that such threats have not only on Mr. Silva’s physical and psychological integrity, but also on the creation of an environment in which members of civil society are encouraged to and feel safe to denounce impunity and seek justice and redress, without fear of reprisal. As stated by the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders in her report ‘Final warning: death threats and killings of human rights defenders’, “[n]ot all death threats to human rights defenders are followed by a murder, and not all such murders are preceded by death threats. However, many killings are preceded by a threat.”
