Collective Cabinet responsibility to be strictly enforced ahead of difficult decisions
Code of Conduct being formulated
by Zacki Jabbar-September 19, 2015, 8:11 pm
Collective responsibility of the Cabinet of Ministers which had been taken for granted is to be enforced strictly with a code of conduct being formulated ahead of difficult decisions that the government would have to take in the coming months.
A Cabinet sub Committee has been appointed to draw up the Code of Conduct and the Ministers would be called upon to swear allegiance to it within one month of the written document being finalized, government sources said yesterday.
The proposal mooted by President Maithripala Sirisena comes ahead of tough measures he would have to implement including the establishment of a Hybrid Special Court that the Report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) has called for, based on the investigations conducted by his office into allegations of serious crimes committed in Sri Lanka between February 21, 2002 to May 19, 2009, the period relating to the last stages of the war between government forces and the LTTE.
The sources observed that a written Code of Conduct had became necessary, to deal with various other post-war issues including the investigation of massive frauds and corruption that had been perpetrated under cover of prosecuting the war. This was one of the recommendations in the UNHCHR’s Report.
Clause 42(2) of the Constitution stipulates that Cabinet Ministers are collectively responsible to Parliament for cabinet decisions. But the President’s proposal for a Code of Conduct in addition to the existing constitutional provision had been necessitate taking into consideration difficulties encountered in the past due to non-implementation of certain decisions that would have benefited the country and its people in the long term, Government Spokesman and Health Minister Rajitha Senaratne said.
The President’s cabinet paper, he noted, was also aimed at establishing a new moral political culture based on good governance and safeguarding the tradition of collective cabinet responsibility.
Senaratne said that massive frauds and corruption that had been perpetrated under the guise of prosecuting a war would also receive due attention of the special court to be established.
The UNHCHR had not named any individuals but called for a credible domestic investigation into the accusations that had been leveled, he observed noting that there was no conclusion that war crimes had been committed.
The Minister said that the UNHRC by calling for a Hybrid Special Court, integrating international judges, prosecutors, lawyers and investigators had only reiterated the need for an independent domestic mechanism assisted by foreign judges that could ensure justice for the affected persons regardless of the community they belonged to.
The government while assuring the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights(UNHCHR) Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, that his office’s Report and recommendations would receive due attention emphasized that it represented a human rights and not criminal inquiry.
"We will ensure that its content as well as recommendations receive due attention of the relevant authorities, including the new mechanisms that are envisaged to be set up," Senaratne said.
Government has also agreed on continued engagement with the UNHCHR as well as its systems and procedures aimed at upholding the human rights of all Sri Lankans.
Pledging to ensure non-recurrence of the allegations of rights violations, the Sirisena - Wickremesinghe coalition pledged it would commence a dialogue with all stake holders, especially victims of the conflict, communities, political parties, civil society representatives, military, bilateral partners and other international organisations in establishing mechanisms and measures that would facilitate the right to know, right to justice, reparations and guaranteeing non-recurrence with a view to achieving reconciliation and durable peace.
Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, who represented the country at the opening of the 30th Sessions of the UNHRC in Geneva earlier this week, told a news conference in Colombo on Thursday, that a ‘four-tier mechanism’ would be established in conformity with the UNHCHR recommendations.
"Consultations with the relevant parties aimed at establishing the proposed mechanisms would commence in October. It would be finalized in January 2016 and implemented within 18 months. We have undertaken this journey not because of international pressure, but since there is no other way", he added.
