A/HRC/43/48/Add.2 17. Additionally, the Special Rapporteur learned about a number of district-level interreligious committees that bring together religious leaders and actors from different religions to promote interreligious harmony. These committees are supported by the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka and the Interreligious Forum of Caritas Sri Lanka. Civil society has been active in monitoring and reporting incidents of the violation of freedom of religion or belief. 18. Despite the positive developments mentioned above, tensions among ethnic and religious communities persist and significant gaps exist, particularly in upholding accountability and access to justice, as well as ensuring the non-recurrence of human rights violations. The evolution of the conflict and the implementation of Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 are detailed in various reports of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (see A/HRC/30/61, A/HRC/34/20 and A/HRC/37/23) 12 and reports by researchers.13 19. During the presidential election held in November 2019, many were concerned by a statement made by the President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, during his election campaign, in which he rejected pledges made by past Governments to the United Nations and stated that he would not honour the country’s commitments to the Human Rights Council on post-war accountability and reconciliation.14 He stated that Sri Lanka ought to look ahead without hanging on to “old allegations” and he questioned the credibility of “foreign investigators”.15 The President’s statement left many feeling exasperated that the culture of impunity and repeated cycles of mass violence in Sri Lanka would unlikely be tackled. III. Main challenges to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief 20. Although Sri Lanka emerged from a long internal conflict in 2009, reverberations of the ethnic conflict remain apparent in the political, social and economic life of the country and impact the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to freedom of religion or belief. While there have been numerous sporadic episodes of violence based on religion or belief in the post-conflict period, the situation in the country was further exacerbated with the terrorist attacks that targeted several churches and public places on Easter Sunday in 2019 (known as the “Easter bombings”). These attacks killed more than 250 people and injured approximately twice as many and were the deadliest attacks since the end of the internal conflict. 21. The Special Rapporteur observed a serious deficit of trust and an increase in tensions among ethno-religious communities, particularly following the Easter bombings and the subsequent mob violence targeting Muslim communities. Religious minorities also face restrictions in the manifestation of their religion or belief, such as proselytization, conversion and building of places of worship, in addition to numerous incidents of violent attacks. 22. The right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion or belief is enshrined in various international human rights instruments16 and broadly encompasses the freedom to adopt, change or renounce a religion or belief, the freedom from coercion and the right to manifest one’s religion or belief. State obligations in the protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief include both negative obligations to respect the rights of individuals to exercise their freedom of religion or belief within the law, and positive obligations to protect these rights against infringement by third parties or non-State actors. 12 13 14 15 16 See also the conference room papers on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, available at www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Pages/ListReports.aspx and www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session32/Pages/ListReports.aspx. See, for example, www.veriteresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Verite-Research_UNHRCMonitor-No4-March-2019.pdf. See www.thehindu.com/news/international/will-not-honour-un-deal-on-accountability-saysgotabaya/article29693188.ece. Ibid. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Religion/RapporteursDigestFreedomReligionBelief.pdf. 5