Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group in crucial meeting today

• Sri Lanka likely to be taken up under ‘other matters’ at key meet in London
• Govt. denies Lanka will be discussed at CMAG meet
• Dhaka to extend support to Sri Lanka as CMAG Chair
• Canadian PM hints at other countries being willing to host CHOGM 2013
• Intl. Bar Association, rights watchdog step up calls for summit venue change

By Dharisha Bastians

Sri Lanka is likely to feature during a meeting of the Commonwealth’s most powerful eight-member body in London today, with Canada hinting it is seeking a shift in the venue and Tamil Nadu political parties,  international lawyers grouping and human rights activists lobbying against allowing Colombo to host a key Commonwealth summit in November.

The Government has consistently denied that Sri Lanka would feature on the agenda of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG) 26 April meet, which will be chaired by Bangladesh and includes Australia, Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Vananatu, Jamaica, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Maldives is also a CMAG member but is currently suspended.

The Daily FT learns that while diplomatic overtures, especially between Colombo and Dhaka, have prevented Sri Lanka from being an official CMAG agenda item, the issue of Sri Lanka hosting this year’s summit and the country’s human rights record is likely to come up for discussion at the London meeting under ‘any other matters’.

Canada is leading the call for discussion on Sri Lanka, with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday hinting in the House of Commons that many other countries would be willing to host the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

When CMAG held a meeting via tele-conference on 20 March, Canada raised concerns about Sri Lanka’s rights record.

It called for the issue to be taken up at the group’s April meeting in London. Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, both countries of the Realm, backed the Canadian representative’s call.

However, the Government of Bangladesh has assured Sri Lanka of its fullest support at CMAG, the Daily FT learns. Minister of External Affairs G.L. Peiris has undertaken at least three trips to Dhaka since February to lobby the Government there for support at CMAG.

CMAG is the Commonwealth’s most powerful decision-making body, with a mandate to recommend member states for scrutiny, suspension and expulsion from the Commonwealth of Nations.

Canadian media reported yesterday that in response to a question by the opposition Liberal Party in the House of Commons on Wednesday, Harper said that while the summit is scheduled to be held in Colombo in November, “any number of countries would be willing to host the event”.

The Canadian Prime Minister has already indicated he would not be attending the Summit in Colombo this year unless Sri Lanka made effective progress on setting its human rights record straight.

Meanwhile, representatives from the Karunanidhi-led DMK party from Tamil Nadu have travelled to London to lobby CMAG representatives against allowing CHOGM to go ahead as scheduled in Colombo, according to Indian media reports.

“I insist that the demand not to hold (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka should be discussed in detail and a decision is taken. DMK MPs and TESO members will meet the envoys of member countries of CMAG and explain in detail that the meeting should not be held in Sri Lanka,” Karunanidhi was quoted by the Press Trust of India as saying.

The DMK, which walked out of the UPA coalition over the Lankan Tamils issue last month, had in the executive also demanded that India boycott the meeting in the event it is held in Colombo.

While a venue change for CHOGM 2013 is unlikely at this stage, with Colombo in full preparation for the key summit, it is likely many Commonwealth Member states will downgrade their level of participation for the event, diplomatic sources said.

But the powerful International Bar Association and human rights watchdogs have stepped up calls to shift the CHOGM venue from Sri Lanka ahead of the CMAG meet this week.

The International Bar Association Human Rights Institute in a panel discussion held to launch its remote probe on the Sri Lankan Justice System entitled A Crisis of Legitimacy: The Impeachment of Chief Justice and the Erosion of the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka in the UK earlier this week, urged the Commonwealth to reassess Sri Lanka’s suitability to host the summit and ascend the CHOGM Chair. IBAHRI members of the delegation that compiled the report on Sri Lanka said that Commonwealth is committed by its Charter to the observance of the rule of law, good governance, independence of the judiciary, and the upholding of human rights.

Panelist and delegation member Sadakat Kadri said in the discussion that if the Commonwealth stands for those values, then it needs to carefully consider whether “Sri Lanka is an appropriate venue for the CHOGM and whether it is an appropriate chair in office for the two years after that, because Sri Lanka will become the body that represents the Commonwealth and its core values around the world.”

Yesterday Human Rights Watch also urged the Commonwealth to shift the venue of its key Summit in November from Colombo.

“The Commonwealth will rightly face international ridicule if it goes ahead with its summit in Sri Lanka,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch told Reuters.

“The CMAG meeting should send a message to the Sri Lankan government that the scale and severity of its abuses violate the Commonwealth’s core values and will not be rewarded,” Adams said.

Human Rights Watch said that since 2009, the Sri Lankan government had been responsible for clampdowns on basic freedoms, threats and attacks against civil society, and actions against the judiciary and other institutions, imperilling Sri Lanka’s democracy.