; Whereas, during the 26-year civil war ending in 2009 between government forces and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, tens of thousands of Tamils were forcibly disappeared by the police, military, and paramilitary operatives; Whereas the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances stated in 2020 that the second-largest number of unresolved enforced disappearance cases in the world before the Working Group involves Sri Lanka, with the Working Group having transmitted communications to the Sri Lankan Government relating to over 12,700 disappearance cases, of which 6,117 were still outstanding, and that Sri Lankan state authorities, have not replied in regard to any cases ; Whereas in 2016 the Sri Lankan Government acknowledged having received at least 65,000 complaints of enforced disappearances since 1995; Whereas Sri Lanka ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in May 2016, and passed domestic legislation criminalizing enforced disappearances in March 2018; Whereas, according to a 2020 United Nations Special Rapporteur’s report, no observable progress has been made on pending cases, including habeas corpus applications into the disappearance of Tamil Tigers and members of their families who surrendered during the final days of the war ; Whereas, in January 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa stated that missing persons are actually dead , without providing any evidence; Whereas lawyers, human rights defenders, and victims involved in cases of enforced disappearances face intimidation, harassment, and violence from state and private actors, particularly since Rajapaksa became President; Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka has promoted high-ranking military officials suspected of forcibly disappearing persons and bearing responsibility for war crimes, including Lieutenant General Shavendra Silva, and has failed to hold accountable other current military officials accused of war crimes