Delivering On Sri Lanka’s Promise Of Victim-Centered Transitional Justice

By Shreen Saroor –October 2, 2016

Shreen Saroor

On 25th August, a mother who claims her son was abducted by military police seven years ago was visited by military officers. The officers told her that her son would be released after she signed some papers. They drove the mother for a long distance and kept her in custody while demanding the wife of the abducted person to meet with them. On 27th the old mother was dropped back near her home. The officers warned her not to talk about what happened and assured her that her son would be released in a couple of days. He has yet to be released.

On 19th September, a campaigner for the disappeared was stopped in Kilinochchi by two military men in an unmarked motorcycle while she was trying to visit a local family. The men pushed her from her bicycle, groped her chest, and threatened her not to continue her human rights work.

On 25th September, a military rape survivor who has bravely spoken out was arrested for allegedly selling beer. She was badly beaten while the police was trying to arrest her. When her son (age 16) tried to stop the police from assaulting his mother, he was also arrested and beaten. Both of them are now charged for assaulting police officers and locked up for 14 days.

These are just three recent examples of the attempt to silence women who bravely stand to demand truth and justice in Sri Lanka.  They are the stakeholders transitional justice in Sri Lanka is supposed to reach out.  While the Consultation Task Force has increased women’s representation and allowed a range of perspectives to be heard, it has so far not been successful in getting the actual decision makers in the Government to adequately address the affected women’s security concerns.

For example, war-affected communities have long highlighted the lack of effective witness protection, a prerequisite for broad participation in transitional justice mechanisms. A victim and witness protection act passed in February 2015, and a protection authority has been established, but the authority lacks independence and includes senior government officials who are widely believed to have obstructed prosecutions in human rights cases in the past.

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