Fair Justice Campaign Statement on Sri Lanka’s Prison Crisis and the Commissioner General’s Call for the Death Penalty

Colombo, Sri Lanka – 23 October 2025

The Fair Justice Campaign of the Right to Life Human Rights Centre has expressed deep concern over the worsening humanitarian crisis in Sri Lanka’s prisons, highlighting severe overcrowding and inhumane conditions that violate the fundamental rights of inmates.

According to official data presented by the Commissioner General of Prisons, Mr. Jagath Weerasinghe, Sri Lanka’s 36 prisons currently hold over 36,000 inmates more than 243% above capacity. He warned that the figure could rise to 40,000, leaving prisoners without even enough space to sit.

The campaign also strongly condemned the Commissioner General’s public endorsement of the death penalty for drug traffickers, calling it a dangerous and regressive stance that contradicts Sri Lanka’s decades-long moratorium on executions.

The Right to Life Human Rights Centre urges the government to adopt immediate decarceration measures, reform bail policies, and expand alternatives to imprisonment while ensuring that prison leadership upholds human dignity and human rights standards.

👉 Read the full statement: Fair Justice Campaign Statement  

👉 Read the full statement: Fair Justice Campaign Statement – Tamil