Adopt CTF recommendations, says Human Rights Watch

The Government should promptly implement recommendations on transitional justice proposed by the Consultation Task Force (CTF) on reconciliation mechanisms, including the creation of a war crimes court comprised of both international and local judges, Human Rights Watch said yesterday.

The New York-based human rights watchdog said the CTF report represented the first broad survey of Sri Lankan citizens on their aspirations for truth and justice, as called for by the October 2015 resolution of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC).

HRW said in a media release that key among the task force’s recommendations was the creation of a war crimes court comprised of both international and national judges and other officials, with no time limit on its jurisdiction. 

“Support for this court included ethnic Sinhalese, whose population suffered thousands of enforced disappearances three decades ago for which there has been no accountability,” the release noted. HRW said the task force had also recommended a countrywide response to disappearances, financial and symbolic reparations, a constitutional and political settlement, resolution of longstanding land disputes, and attention to psychosocial needs.

“The task force report is remarkably comprehensive and clear in setting out the concerns and needs expressed by Sri Lankans across all communities on the transitional justice process,” said Asia Director Brad Adams,. 

“The Government should now own the report’s recommendations and set out a framework for putting them into action, in line with its pledges at the Human Rights Council.”

However, the rights organisation said the immediate response by senior officials to the report had been “disappointing.” 

Both the Justice Minister and the Health Minister had separately ruled out the participation of foreign nationals in the special court, the HRW release noted.

“The Sri Lankan Government took the bold step of agreeing to a multiethnic task force for broad consultations on transitional justice,” Adams said. “Now that the task force has listened to the country, it’s crucial that the Government doesn’t drop its key recommendations. The Government should recognise that its commitments were not only to concerned governments in Geneva, but to its own citizens seeking justice and reconciliation after a terrible war.”