Handling frustration

UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues Rita Izsák-Ndiaye is the latest official to point out mounting frustration in Sri Lanka with the pace of progress in the accountability process. Despite repeated assurances by the Government of its commitment to reconciliation, actions remain thin on the ground.  

In a report on Sri Lanka submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) ahead of its 34th session in Geneva, Izsák-Ndiaye said that to achieve peaceful coexistence after the long, devastating civil war, a comprehensive, well-planned and well-coordinated truth, reconciliation, healing and accountability process must take place and it cannot be done overnight.

However, almost two years after the change of Government, the Special Rapporteur notes the mounting frustrations with the pace of progress.

Releasing a report, she insisted it was important for the Government to put in place some immediate, important and concrete measures to clearly demonstrate its political will and commitment to better protect the country’s minorities.

Izsák-Ndiaye says the specific policy interventions to address the needs of different minority groups should be based on accurate data that is disaggregated by, inter alia, gender, ethnicity, language and religious affiliation.

While the country is undergoing an important reconciliation process, with constitutional reform and transitional justice and policymaking, Izsák-Ndiaye says the devastating impact of the war and violence on psychological wellbeing cannot continue to be ignored.

She also notes that past acts of repression of culture and expression, ethnic intolerance and discrimination, as well as the crimes and violations committed during the conflict and the prevailing impunity, have severely damaged social and cultural norms and feelings of identity, belonging and trust.

Therefore, she says the Government should also consider supporting psychosocial programs and counselling and support interventions to help victims, especially women, overcome the trauma, which often manifests in complex and intertwined physical, emotional and mental health complications.

Granted the obligations to foster reconciliation are many and the Government may not have the political space or resources to achieve them all at the same time. However, some steps such as fast-tracking land release, the establishment of the Office for Missing Persons and the successful completion of key cases would give confidence that the Government is heading in the right direction. 

The Government has also neglected to foster and promote broad-based engagement on reconciliation and the constitutional process, especially in the south among Sinhalese, leading to misunderstandings and confusion over what the Government is attempting to achieve. It also opens the doors to deep suspicion and mistrust among communities and plays into the hands of extremist political factions that would use it to undermine a Government that is already seeing its popularity diminish on the economic front. 

Losing the momentum on the reconciliation front is deeply linked to the Government’s struggling economic and anti-corruption efforts. If the Government cannot shore up political capital through economic management, good governance and a stronger judiciary it will find its reconciliation promises even harder to achieve. 

For now the Government plans to kick the can further down the road but the danger of that is it may eventually find itself facing both economic and reconciliation battles together.