Monday, 9 September 2013 00:00
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For the third time this year, Sri Lanka’s human rights record will shift into global focus when the UN’s Human Rights Council takes up post-war progress on investigating alleged rights abuses and delivering a political solution to the country’s ethnic question during its 24th Session that begins today.
The Sessions begin just one week after UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay concluded her fact finding mission to Sri Lanka, mandated by the 47 member Council which passed its second resolution in March this year, urging the Government in Colombo to address outstanding issues of accountability with the UN and the ruling administration trading charges on alleged civilian casualties in the phase of the war.
Since the adoption of the first resolution against Sri Lanka in March, that was sponsored by the US and backed by a powerful coterie of states including India, each time the Council meets in Geneva, the human rights spotlight is focused on the country. The attention has been exacerbated by certain glaring lapses on the human rights front years after the war ended and Sri Lanka’s ongoing problems with a severe breakdown of rule of law.
High Commissioner Pillay’s visit, while well facilitated by the Government and uneventful apart from certain imprudent remarks by senior ministers, ended with a bang. The UN Envoy’s stinging statements before her departure has left the Government reeling and drawn a sharp and unrelenting flurry of rebuttals from senior administration officials.
In the first flush of anger, Colombo has sought to discredit and dismiss Pillay’s assertions that the country’s commitment to human rights was found wanting and heading in what she called an “increasingly authoritarian direction”.
What it may perhaps have lost sight of is that the High Commissioner’s parting remarks are likely to be widely endorsed by the Council when she presents her oral report later this month and her full mission findings to be submitted next April. Such endorsements while they may be widely decried in Sri Lanka will ensure that the country remains under the human rights microscope for the foreseeable future each time the UNHRC meets in Geneva; three times each year.
The only plausible way to shift this focus and attempt to restore the country’s image overseas is to credibly address concerns being consistently and repeatedly raised internationally and following certain disturbing incidents pertaining to human rights and fundamental freedoms in parts of the country outside the North and East and also from within.
Ahead of Pillay’s visit the Government took several steps in the right direction, including the setting up of a commission to investigate disappearances; an issue that took centre stage during her visit. Going forward, taking these steps to their credible and natural fruition will convince Pillay and the Government’s critics internationally that Colombo is finally serious about getting its house in order on the rights front.
Crying UN prejudice and an unfair world will only go so far.
