Tracking incremental progress on the Transitional Justice agenda

Photo courtesy Understanding the Age of Transitional Justice

• by Isabelle Lassee 
 
• - on 02/29/2016 

Last week, SACLS released a report titled “From Words to Action: A Road Map for Implementing Sri Lanka’s Transitional Justice Commitments”. This report unpacks the TJ package contained in UNHRC Resolution 30/1, classifies the commitments made by the government of Sri Lanka through the co-sponsoring of Resolution 30/1, and breaks them down into tangible, operational, and objectively verifiable steps.

After investigative missions—such as the OISL—report to the UNHRC, the latter often mandates mechanisms to monitor the implementation of the recommendations issued by investigative bodies, or of the recommendations contained in UNHRC follow-up resolutions. This was done for example with respect to the situation in Darfur and as a follow-up to the Report of the Commission of Inquiry into Operation Cast Lead carried out by the Israeli military in the Gaza strip in December 2008-January 2009. As an alternative, or in addition, the UNHRC often mandates OHCHR to monitor and publicly report on progress. It is in this context that Resolution 30/1 tasks OHCHR with “assessing progress on the implementation of its recommendations and other relevant processes related to reconciliation, accountability and human rights” in Sri Lanka.

Though not always undertaken systematically, mechanisms tasked with monitoring progress in the realm of Transitional Justice (TJ) sometimes devise roadmaps of the kind prepared by SACLS. Such roadmaps serve as a tool for constructive engagement with the government concerned. It is therefore unfortunate that no roadmap of the kind issued by the experts group on Darfur was issued and released publicly by OHCHR. Unlike the government of Sudan, the government of Sri Lanka committed itself (though its decision to co-sponsor Resolution 30/1) to implement the recommendations contained in this resolution in full. Therefore, a roadmap proposed by OHCHR would have stood a reasonable chance of being agreed upon by Sri Lanka, at least partially. This would also have reassured the public as to the level of OHCHR’s engagement in the process.

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