Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation

Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation (CWHF) announces that a formal complaint has been filed with the
United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) concerning the Sri Lanka Accountabilit
Project (SLAP).
The complaint has been submitted in public interest by Venerable Kassapa of Great Britain, the Founder
of CWHF, Anuradha Yahampath, former Governor of the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka, Rear Admiral Dr.
Sarath Weerasekera, former Cabinet Minister and Member of Parliament, and Dharshan Weerasekera,
Attorney-at-Law.
The OIOS is UN’s own watchdog body, created to ensure that the organization complies with its rules
and uses contributions of Member States with integrity and prudence. It functions as an independent
oversight and investigative arm of the UN, with authority to audit projects, review procedures, and
examine possible misuse of resources. By directing their complaint to this specialized unit, the
complainants have ensured that their concerns will be considered by the very body mandated to hold the
UN to account to its own operations and funtions.
The complaint calls for an urgent investigation into the administrative, financial, and procedural conduct
of SLAP, which has cost UN Member States nearly USD 16 million since its establishment in 2021. Despite
the vast sums expended, the project has provided almost no transparency in how funds are used, how
evidence is collected, or how information is shared with foreign governments and courts.
SLAP was created under UN Human Rights Council Resolution 46/1 to gather and preserve evidence of
alleged violations committed during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. Yet successive reports from the Office of
the High Commissioner for Human Rights have devoted at the end of four years, no more than one or
two pages to the SLAP project. It has failed to to explain the sources of evidence for the SLAP’s
repository, the credibility of those sources, or the procedures for collaboration with external actors. Fouryears on, there have been no prosecutions, no verified evidence disclosed, and no assurance that the
mechanism meets even basic standards of impartiality.
The complainants emphasize that they are not challenging the authority of the Human Rights Council
itself, nor the principle of reconciliation, but instead seek to ensure that UN mechanisms adhere to the
same standards of accountability that the UN expects of its Member States. They argue that without
corrective oversight, SLAP risks becoming a politicized and wasteful exercise that undermines both Sri
Lanka’s sovereignty and the credibility of international human rights work.
With SLAP’s mandate scheduled for renewal, the complaint urges OIOS to conduct a full investigation
before any extension is approved. Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation based in the UK, calls on Sri
Lankans, the Sri Lankan diaspora, and concerned international allies to join in pressing the Human Rights
Council not to extend SLAP’s mandate until transparency and accountability are guaranteed.
After four years and USD 16 million spent, the world deserves answers.
Ceehalé World Heritage Foundation