On 24 March 2026 it was announced that Brito Fernando from Sri Lanka has been awarded the Per Anger Prize 2026 for his work seeking truth and justice for the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared involuntarily in Sri Lanka. The Per Anger Prize is the Swedish Government’s international prize for human rights and democracy.
Brito Fernando is the founder and chair of Families of the Disappeared (FoD), which represents more than 20,000 families across Sri Lanka. Since the late 1980s, he has campaigned to establish what happened to those who vanished during periods of political violence and civil war in the country, and to secure accountability and justice.
According to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), Sri Lanka has among the highest numbers of unresolved cases of enforced disappearance in the world. During various armed conflicts and the civil war in Sri Lanka, which ended in 2009, tens of thousands of people were taken by state actors, armed groups or paramilitary organisations. Most of these cases remain unresolved.
In 2004, Brito Fernando founded FoD, which today is the only organisation in Sri Lanka working across all communities on the issue of disappearances. Various ethnic and religious groups in Sri Lanka have historically been pitted against each other. Even today, violence and discrimination against minority groups remain widespread.
Through his work, Brito Fernando has brought together families from Sinhalese, Tamil and Muslim communities across much of the country in a common fight for truth, justice and accountability.
Brito Fernando’s work has entailed significant personal risk. He has been detained and arrested on several occasions, questioned over alleged links to terrorism and had his home attacked. Despite this, he and the families in FoD continue their pursuit of truth and justice.
Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards 
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