Dual Reality And International Pressures
By Jehan Perera -October 8, 2012
Jehan Perera
The government has done a considerable amount of background work in preparation for the forthcoming session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In dealing with the Universal Periodic Review, which is a four year report on a country’s human rights performance, the government is leaving no room for a repeat of the setback it experienced in March 2012 when the Human Rights Council voted against it. In the months that have followed the government has been busy meeting its international obligations, including an Action Plan on implementing the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and in hosting a team from the office of the UN Human Rights Commissioner. In addition, the government has been opening up new diplomatic missions in African countries which it hopes will ensure it the support of a majority of countries in the future.
The forthcoming November session of the UN Human Rights Council, however, will not see any voting. Instead there will be a scrutiny of Sri Lanka’s track record since 2008 in upholding and improving the situation with regards to human rights. Already documents have been tabled with regard to this by the government, specialized UN agencies and NGOs. The core of the government’s defense of its performance will be a comparison between the situations that existed in 2008 and now. There will be no question that the situation today is a vast improvement over what existed in 2008, when the war was at its peak. It is likely that the government’s position will be on lines articulated by External Affairs Minister G L Peiris during his recent visit to the United States.
The gist of Prof. Peiris’s presentation on behalf of the government appeared as a news item in the newspapers. In this the Minister gave an overview of the completion of resettlement of the internally displaced people, rehabilitation of former LTTE combatants, demilitarization of the former theatres of conflict and repeal of the Emergency Laws. Any foreign person listening to such a presentation could not fail to be impressed by the developments that have taken place in the country and would only wish to support it if not emulate it. Prof. Peiris also explained the government’s position that reconciliation can be sustained only with economic development and referred to the mega projects to construct highways, bridges, airports and harbours which had led to substantial investments from local and foreign companies.
However, the ground reality in terms of human rights, which the Universal Periodic Review is meant to promote is a harsher one. The country’s Human Rights Commission has referred to 37 cases of disappearances, 19 white van abductions between January, 2012 and August 13, 2012. At the present time when several important cases are before the courts of law which could have long lasting repercussions on the future of the country there has been an assault on the Secretary of the Judicial Services Commission in the context of tensions being reported between the executive and judicial branches of government. The most ominous part of this assault is that the victim had expressed his fears in public about such a danger to himself and other members of the judicial services. All courts shut down with judges and lawyers staying away in protest against this attack.
