Constitution Sanctions The Enforcement Of Geneva Resolution

By Nagananda Kodituwakku –February 6, 2016

Nagananda Kodituwakku

G. L. Peiris, a former Justice Minister and many others are campaigning against the Geneva Resolution co-sponsored by Sri Lanka on October 01, 2015, alleging that the Constitution does not recognise any such move, which is absolutely false and misleading.

In the first place, these so-called campaigners should accept the full responsibility for undermining the independence and integrity of the Judiciary, compelling the people to seek redress elsewhere after having lost their trust and confidence in the justice system of Sri Lanka. G. L. Peiris is one of the main architects who were instrumental in enacting the undemocratic 18th Amendment, allowing the then President Mahinda Rajapaksa to have a firm control over the judiciary, in complete violation of the Commonwealth Latimer House Principles that disapprove encroaching of powers of one branch by another. As a result the Rajapaksa regime made the Sri Lanka’s judiciary, a mockery.

Constitution authorises the enforcement of international obligations

The Article 27 (15) of the Constitution, the supreme law of the land, provides that the Government of Sri Lanka shall ‘endeavor to foster respect for international law and treaty agreements’. The Government of Sri Lanka has already been enforcing several treaty obligations despite domestic legislations not being enacted to meet its international obligations.

A classic example of meeting international obligations

For instance, there is no domestic legislation in place to give effect to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), which requires all state parties, to regulate wild life ‘specimen’ (any specified animal or plant, whether alive or dead) trade with stringent penal sanctions, which includes forfeiture of such items. Sri Lanka ratified this convention in 1979 but no domestic law has been enacted to give effect to its treaty obligations.     Read More