Looking To The Parliamentary Select Committee To Break Deadlock
Jehan Perera
In a matter of three to four months the government will be facing scrutiny at theUN Human Rights Council which will be scrutinizing the four year report of the Sri Lankan government for the period 2008-12 in terms of the UN’s Universal Periodic Review. This will be followed by the UN Human Rights Council meeting of March 2013 at which the government will be scrutinized on account of its implementation of the LLRC report. This will be followed by theCommonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo later in the year that some Commonwealth heads are contemplating a boycott of if the Sri Lankan government does not improve its human rights performance. Unlike in the recent past, the government appears to be taking the challenge of the international human rights community seriously this time.
Unfortunately, the accountability situation in the country in practice remains stagnant with few signs of improving where political favourites of the government are concerned. The media reports that the ruling party has decided to restore the chairmanship of a local government authority in the President’s home turf to a politician who is currently remanded for murder is a harsh reminder of how the exigencies of politics trump principles of accountability. However, at the level of principle, the government’s response to concerns expressed by the international community in regard to the post-war handling of human rights and accountability issues has taken the form of the presentation of important action plans that will need to be implemented. These are the National Action Plan on Human Rights, the National Action Plan on implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the National Social Integration Policy Framework.
The three plans that have been prepared in a professional manner by experts who have a depth of knowledge of matters in the fields they have dealt with bodes well for international acceptability which the government may feel is the need of the present period. There are two more important plans that the government is preparing to launch. These are the National Reconciliation Policy Framework and the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Amendments. Some of these plans have already received international expressions of support. The LLRC action plan has been welcomed by the US government. The National Social Integration Policy Framework has received technical support from the German government. The latest indications are that the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional Amendments is going to receive international support. The government appears to have made use of the visit of a high powered South African delegation to impress upon them the significance of the PSC and to canvass international support and to get the opposition parties to join it.
