Sri Lanka is one of 42 countries, out of 193 member states, blacklisted by the United Nations for retaliating against human rights activists and journalists who are either behind bars, persecuted or under government surveillance.
These activists also faced reprisals and intimidation for cooperating with the UN on human rights, according to a recent report.
Highlighting a number of disturbing trends over the past year, the annual report by the UN Secretary General details how people–mainly victims of human rights violations, human rights defenders and journalists–suffered reprisals and intimidation by State and non-State actors. This included people being detained, targeted by restrictive legislation and surveilled both online and offline.
The 42 States referred to in the report, which covers the period from May 1, 2021 to April 39, 2022, include Afghanistan, Andorra, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, China, Cuba, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Iran, Israel, Kazakhstan, Laos, Libya, the Maldives, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nicaragua, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, the State of Palestine, Thailand, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Viet Nam and Yemen.
