The bipartisan council has been beset by wrangling between the Marxist JVP party and the minority Tamil party, both of which want to fill a single vacancy.
The council cannot function unless all 10 of its members are in place.
The deadlock has already resulted in the collapse of the national police commission and the judicial services rights offices.
Both commissions are responsible for the day-to-day administration of the police and the judiciary.
With the collapse of the independent commissions, the administrative powers have reverted to the police chief in the case of the police department and the chief justice in the judiciary.
The rights commission has sweeping powers to investigate allegations of excesses by the police and the security forces.
It is also empowered to investigate public services for any violation of fundamental rights.
However, with the collapse of the rights commission, the investigations would have to stop.
The AHRC said Sri Lanka's commission was set up in the early 1990s to "introduce some semblance of accountability into the system," but that was in danger of being undermined without staff.
The AHRC said it believed the real problem was the "government's deliberate attempts" to place all independent commissions under its direct control and to discourage the monitoring of government agencies in any form.
There was no immediate government reaction to the AHRC statement but Media Minister Anura Yapa recently asked minor parties to resolve their dispute and help reactivate the Constitutional Council and through it the independent bodies.
-Amal Jayasinghe: win98win@gmail.com
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