UNHRC Draft Resolution Weak On Substance, But Nandasena Govt Set To Reject Text And Force Vote

Michelle Bachelet

FEBRUARY 20, 2021

The Government of Sri Lanka is set to reject almost out of hand the early draft of the 2021 UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, which activists are condemning as a bitter disappointment that does not take into account the scathing report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The draft resolution does not even come close to the text of the resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2014, disappointed rights activists said as calls mounted internationally for the Council to take decisive action against the Sri Lankan Government. The resolution calls for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights to consolidate and preserve evidence pertaining to war crimes and emblematic cases in Sri Lanka. The recommendation falls far short of the International Impartial Independent Evidence Mechanism for the investigation and prosecution of most serious crimes. This mechanism was established for Syria.

Michelle Bachelet in her report to the 46th Session of the Human Rights Council warned of an impending human rights calamity in Sri Lanka, with the Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa Government actively obstructing justice for war crimes and other human rights violations with his endless commissions of inquiry. Bachelet even urged member states of the UNHRC to pursue the option of referring Sri Lanka’s war crimes and atrocities to the International Criminal Court in the Hague. In her 17 page Report, Bachelet told the Council that Sri Lanka was at a critical turning point in its engagement with the Council, as it issued an ‘early warning’ about trajectory for democracy and human rights in the island nation that is struggling to come to terms with crimes committed in war time. Bachelet’s warning is in line with the UN’s own commitments about intervening early with preventative action to prevent mass human tragedy. The policy that set out the UN’s responsibility to intervene early, came about after a review of the world body’s failures Sri Lanka in 2009, where it estimates 40,000 people perished in the final days of battle in the northern province.

The “zero draft” of the UNHRC’s 2021 resolution on Sri Lanka reflects none of the High Commissioner’s heightened concerns. Although the draft is subject to major revisions, activists are already warning that the resolution is likely to be diluted rather than strengthened before it is adopted by the Council in March.

Despite the weakness of the resolution relative to the concerns expression by human rights organisations and Tamil activists, the government of Sri Lanka will not only reject most of the draft it will also force a vote at 47-member state Council.

Sri Lanka has failed to win a vote on a resolution to promote reconciliation and accountability in the country since 2012 when the US first sponsored one at the Human Rights Council in Geneva. Colombo Telegraph has seen a GoSL document that outlines its opposition to the text of the draft resolution. The Nandasena Rajapaksa government is firmly opposing not only the recommendation that Bachelet’s Office run a mechanism to preserve and analyse and consolidate evidence regarding war crimes and human rights abuses in Sri Lanka for war crimes trials at a later date, demanding that the core group removes a brief reference in the draft text about the 13th Amendment to the Constitution that sets up the provincial councils.

Rajapaksa is planning to repeal the 13th Amendment in line with demands from hardliners in his ranks like Rear Admiral and Public Order Minister Sarath Weerasekera who wish to have the provincial council system scrapped. A new constitution the government is hoping to enact within a few months will likely remove the 13th Amendment unless the Government of India stages a major intervention to prevent it. (By Chinthika De Silva) 

See full text of the current version of the UNHRC draft resolution on Sri Lanka:

Zero Draft 

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