GENEVA: Sri Lankan forces used sexual violence against minority Tamils during the island’s decades-long separatist war, and victims still await justice 17 years after the fighting ended, a UN report said on Tuesday.

Troops crushed the separatists following a no-holds-barred offensive and declared an end to the war by May 2009. The spectacular military success also drew allegations of widespread war crimes.

Sexual assaults were used as a tool to extract information, intimidate individuals and communities, and instil a pervasive climate of fear and humiliation, the paper by the UN Human Rights Office said.

“Despite it being a longstanding matter of record, successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to adequately investigate or prosecute cases of conflict-related sexual violence,” the report said.

UN human rights chief Volker Turk urged the new government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to address the issue of impunity in the South Asian nation.

“Recognition, truth, accountability and reparations are critical to restoring dignity to survivors, and advancing reconciliation and healing in Sri Lanka,” Turk said at the launch of the report in Geneva.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2026