Diplomatic Advocacy Dossier: Advancing Tamil Rights and Accountability at the UN General Assembly

Diplomatic Advocacy Dossier: Advancing Tamil Rights and Accountability at the UN General Assembly Edited by: Wimal Navaratnam, Human Rights Activist, July 24, 2025 Background The Sri Lankan civil war (1983–2009) ended with a brutal military campaign that crushed the Tamil separatist insurgency but at enormous human cost. In the final months of the war, tens of thousands of Tamil civilians were killed amid indiscriminate shelling of supposed “no-fire zones” and other atrocity crimes. A UN Secretary-General’s panel found credible evidence of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both government forces and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE), including widespread shelling of civilians, executions of surrendering persons, and the LTTE’s use of human shields. UN inquiries later acknowledged that up to 70,000 Tamil civilians may have perished in the war’s final phase. The conflict’s legacy left vast destruction, deep ethnic grievances, and thousands of missing persons. After the...