Sri Lanka exposes itself at the UN

Sri Lanka’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York (PRUN/NY) Mohan Peiris made a scathing attack on the United Nations Human Rights Council and its recently passed resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN General Assembly’s Fifth Committee. 

Addressing the UN committee responsible for administrative and budgetary matters, the former chief justice went on to say that resolution 50/1 passed in October 2022 at the UNHRC was “unwarranted, unhelpful and a misdirected drain on the resources of all Member States.” 

Peiris who was appointed to New York by ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa went on to assert that that the resolution was “divisive” and was demonstrative of the “political nature of the human rights council and the duplicity by which it works.” He informed the committee that the resolution “duplicates the work carried out by a competent domestic mechanism.”

A resolution on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ was adopted at the HRC with an overwhelming majority with 20 countries voting in favour and only seven voting against in October this year. Just as in Res 46/1 of 2021, the Sri Lankan Government has no role nor relevance in the implementation of Res 51/1 which strengthened the evidence gathering mechanism set up at the office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights.

The 2021 and 2022 resolutions could have been avoided had the Sri Lankan Government shown an iota of commitment for justice for heinous crimes committed against our own people. Having failed to do so and having actively shielded those responsible for such crimes that have brought international disrepute to the country, it is now rich for the likes of Mohan Peiris and Foreign Minister Ali Sabry to preach of the mandate, overreach and duplicity of the dedicated international organisation set up by the member countries of the UN to uphold human rights.

No other democracy in the world has so many unresolved cases of serious violations. On the issue of enforced disappearance and extrajudicial killings alone, Sri Lanka has an abysmal record. In 1971 at least 12,000 individuals were killed by the State. The number is estimated to be over 60,000 in the period 1987-89 and many more tens of thousands during the ethnic war between 1983 and 2009. In addition, families of journalists, human rights defenders and activists have not found justice for their loved ones who have been abducted, killed or disappeared.

All the victims of violations in Sri Lanka are citizens of this country. They and their families are owed, at the very least, a semblance of justice from their government. Hiding behind archaic, outdated and irrelevant norms such as sovereignty will not help the Sri Lankan Government. If it needs to prevent Sri Lankan officials, military and political leaders being subjected to extra territorial jurisdiction it has to at the very minimum demonstrate that domestic courts and special accountability mechanisms are both willing and able to deliver justice. Mohan Peiris’s claims that there is a “competent domestic mechanism” which is apparently addressing these outstanding issues is just as farcical and a figment of his imagination as his now expunged tenure as the purported chief justice of the country.

Sri Lanka is climbing high amongst the pariah states of the world. Individuals who were at the forefront of creating and fostering the ethno-nationalist regime of Gotabaya Rajapaksa are clearly still holding sway over the Ranil Wickremesinghe administration in its dealings with the international community. This is particularly disappointing since much more was expected from the current administration. Resolution 50//1 is in place due to the Sri Lankan Government’s failure to deliver justice to its own people. In the end what is of paramount importance is that justice is delivered to victims and their families. That demand for justice will not and should not be hampered at any cost.