Transitional Justice Process Needs To Become More Inclusive 

By Jehan Perera –January 25, 2016

Jehan Perera

A high level delegation of EU officials was in Sri Lanka last week to have meetings with a cross section of society prior to engaging in discussions with their counterparts in the Sri Lankan government. When they met with civil society representatives they said that this was the first joint meeting on issues of human rights with the government and saw this as a positive breakthrough. They also said that they had come to see what had been delivered by the government in terms of the promises it had made. The media release that they issued after a joint EU-Sri Lanka Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights concluded its first meeting in Colombo on 21 January 2016 stated that they expected the full implementation of the UN Human Rights Council resolution as a priority.

During the visit of the EU delegation to Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva said he was confident that Sri Lanka will regain the EU’s Generalized System of Preferences plus (GSP+) facility during this year. The EU, citing Sri Lanka’s failure to meet human rights conventions relevant for benefits under the scheme, in August 2010, suspended the GSP+ tariff concession for Sri Lanka that provided tax free access to European markets for the country’s products, especially for garment exports which was Sri Lanka’s second largest foreign exchange earner next to worker remittances. This illustrates the holistic dimension of the UN Human Rights Council resolution. It is not only about accountability and war crimes. It is also a matter of employment and the development of the economy.

According to the text of the statement issued by the joint working group which has obtained considerable publicity , “Both sides recognised the full implementation of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) resolution of October 2015 as a priority.” This has been interpreted by the opposition to mean that the government will have to cave in to international pressure and appoint foreigners to sit in judgment over Sri Lankan military commanders and their political masters. The main thrust of the opposition’s campaign amongst the general population is to instill fear that the collaboration of the government with the international community will lead to an erosion of Sri Lankan sovereignty, and that this will ultimately pave the way for the division of the country.

Mixed Signals                                                Read More