Scotland's Police to Stop Training of Sri Lankan Officers Over Human Rights Concerns 

30-11-2021 

Judit Kolbe 

Sri Lanka and Human Rights Researcher,

Global Human Rights Defence.

Since 2013, the international development and innovation unit of Police Scotland has given training programmes on sexual and gender-based violence to Sri Lankan police officers (Amery, R., 2021). The Scottish Police confirmed last week that they will no longer renew the contract set to end in March next year (Nivunhella, S., 2021). According to Police Scotland the contract will be ended due to concerns over human rights violations in Sri Lanka (Nivunhella, S., 2021). Prior to this announcement, multiple campaigns and requests from organizations and Members of Parliament from Scotland and England had urged for Police Scotland to end the training of Sri Lankan police officers (Nivunhella, S., 2021; Amery, R., 2021). The International Truth and Justice Project in Sri Lanka has welcomed the news, expressing their hope that the initiative of the Scottish Police will ‘set an example to Westminster’ (Amery, R., 2021).
There have been allegations that Scottish police officers actively helped to cover up human rights violations in Sri Lanka (Amery, R., 2021). Furthermore, former United Nations (UN) Rapporteur, Manfred Nowak, had accused Police Scotland of being naive in continuing the programme for this long, despite various UN reports on human rights abuses (Scott, M., 2021). A demand for a parliamentary inquiry into international programmes run by Scotland Police has been voiced following this news (Scott, M., 2021).

Sources and further reading: 

Amery, R. (2021, November 26). Police Scotland ends Sri Lankan training scheme over human rights concerns. The Press and Journal. https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/politics/scottish-politics/3703926/police-scotland-ends-sri-lankan-training-scheme-over-human-rights-concerns/

Nivunhella, S. (2021, November 28). Scotland Police to stop training Lankan cops. The Island. https://island.lk/scotland-police-to-stop-training-lankan-cops/

Scott, M., (2021, November 28). Call for inquiry into Police Scotland’s global training after Sri Lanka contract. The Sunday Post. https://www.sundaypost.com/fp/police-scotland-sri-lanka-contract/