“More Than a Domestic Mechanism”: Options for Hybrid Justice in Sri Lanka
For nearly three decades, the government of Sri Lanka fought with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), but after years of resistance, the new government has committed to launching a genuine transitional justice program to address, and redress, the grave international crimes committed by all sides during the conflict. This welcome about-face comes after intensive engagement between Sri Lanka and the UN Human Rights Councilin Geneva over the past few years, which has been a major diplomatic initiative of the US mission there. In March 2014, because of the absence of a genuine domestic accountability process following the war, the Human Rights Council authorized a comprehensive investigation into international crimes committed in Sri Lanka between February 2002 (the signing of a ceasefire agreement) and November 2011 (the presentation of the results of the country’s own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission to the then-president). The report from the Human Rights Council’s investigation (known as the OHCHR Investigation in Sri Lanka, or OISL) exhaustively documented the commission of a wide range of international crimes and advanced a number of cogent transitional justice recommendations. Implementing the recommendations of the Council and the OISL, and adapting the lessons learned from other transitional states to the Sri Lankan context, offers Sri Lanka the opportunity to craft its own hybrid institution to redress crimes committed during the war, respond to the legitimate grievances of the victims, and ultimately lay the groundwork for a more peaceful and just society.
As a promising first step, and in response to the report, the government of Sri Lanka pledged to establish “mechanisms and measures to facilitate the right to know, the right to justice, reparations and guarantee[s] of non-recurrence.” It then co-sponsored aconsensus resolution setting forth the building blocks of a comprehensive transitional justice program. In addition to political reforms focused on good governance, the devolution of power, security sector reform, the demilitarization of Tamil areas, and the rule of law, the future transitional justice process will reportedly involve four main pillars:
