Human Rights Back In The Limelight »

Navi Pillay

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, July 28, 2013

Navi Pillay

Sri Lanka’s human rights record is back in the limelight with the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay confirming the dates for her visit to Sri Lanka next month.
A spokesman at Pillay’s office told The Sunday Leader that she will be in the country for a full week but her schedule is still not known.

Pillay’s Chief Security Advisor Abraham Mathai was in town last week during which time it is believed he made the ground preparations for her visit.

So far an EU delegation and a British parliamentary delegation which visited Sri Lanka and toured the North as well, were not all positive about what they had seen and heard.

Both delegations noted that there still remains a lot to be done, the main point being that accountability was a must. That said it is hard to see Pillay being overly positive on her assessment when she visits Sri Lanka.
The 24th session of the UN Human Rights Council takes place in Geneva from 9 to 27 September.
A panel of independent UN experts have already begun investigating new or existing cases of disappearances in Sri Lanka and several other countries.

The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances met in New York recently to review under their urgent action procedure, 17 reported cases of enforced disappearances that had occurred in the last six months, as well as more than 400 newly reported or existing cases in more than 25 countries including Sri Lanka.

The cases under review concerned Albania, Algeria, Bahrain, Belarus, the Central African Republic (CAR), Colombia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), El Salvador, Honduras, Kuwait, Laos, Mexico, Morocco, Namibia, Pakistan, Peru, the Philippines, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Turkmenistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Yemen.

Meanwhile, separately, a report compiled by a committee chaired by former US Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright criticised the international reaction to Sri Lanka during the final stages of the conflict despite embracing the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) concept.
R2P focuses on preventing and halting genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

Released by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, United States Institute of Peace, and Brookings Institution, the report said that tens of thousands of Tamil civilians died at the end of the Sri Lankan civil war with little international outcry or effective UN response.

Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former presidential special envoy to Sudan Richard Williamson co-chaired the working group which compiled the report.

On Sri Lanka, the report says for over twenty-five years, the conflict in Sri Lanka pitted the army against the separatist insurgency of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, levels of violence escalated rapidly as the government pursued a strategy of military victory and advanced into LTTE-held territory between January and May 2009.

During this period, the civilian population suffered significant casualties and were unable to escape the conflict zone due to LTTE threats and the Sri Lankan military’s prohibitions on movement.

The United Nations estimates that up to forty thousand civilians were killed and hundreds of thousands were displaced during the final phase of the conflict, which ended with the defeat of the LTTE and the deaths of its senior leaders.

“Despite the high number of civilian casualties, the international community did little beyond issuing statements of concern. The UN Security Council, High Commission on Human Rights, and UN General Assembly held no formal sessions on Sri Lanka during this period. In Sri Lanka, both the government and the rebels can be faulted for failing to protect civilians. However, the international community also neglected its responsibility to take timely action when it was apparent that violations of humanitarian law were taking place,” the report said.
It goes on to say that the case of Sri Lanka exemplifies a challenge for implementing R2P when sovereign governments confront an internal threat from a group that is designated as a terrorist organization.

“Since the end of the conflict, the government has steadfastly denied that the mass killing of civilians and war crimes took place. While launching its own inquiry into the military’s actions, the government has obstructed international efforts to investigate potential war crimes and crimes against humanity. Critics question the independence and balance of the government commission’s report and argue that accountability requires a more credible investigation. If a recurrence of conflict in Sri Lanka is to be prevented, the international community should help the government respond to the needs of all communities in the country, while undertaking a national reconciliation process that addresses wounds inflicted during nearly three decades of conflict,” the report said.

Meanwhile the British Parliament was informed last week that British Prime Minister David Cameron will press UK’s concerns on Sri Lanka in line with Britain’s own assessment of the situation in Sri Lanka when he visits the country in November.

Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government and Foreign and Commonwealth Office Baroness Sayeeda Warsi told the House of Lords that Cameron and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague will raise their concerns when they attend the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka in November.

Britain believes the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka will either highlight Sri Lanka’s progress and respect for Commonwealth values, or draw attention to the absence of such progress.

Baroness Warsi said the British Government regularly raises concerns about the lack of progress on post-conflict reconciliation, accountability and the current human rights situation with the Government of Sri Lanka.

“We have ongoing human rights concerns about Sri Lanka, including on freedom of opinion and expression, and judicial independence. Our up to date assessment is available online as a ‘Country Update’ to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s Human Rights Report for 2012,” she said in a response to a question raised on Sri Lanka.

She said that Britain has been clear with the Sri Lankan government that they expect to see concrete progress on human rights, reconciliation, free, fair and peaceful Northern Provincial Council elections in September and that media and civil society have access and freedom of movement to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

The government keeps saying it needs “time and space” to address human rights concerns but the international community has made it clear that time is fast running out.