UNHRC Resolution 40/1 & The Pathetic Plight Of The Victims Of War In Sri Lanka
Kumarathasan Rasingam
The UNHRC Resolution 40/1 was passed without voting giving another two years to Sri Lanka delay the implementation of UNHRC Resolution 30/1. In fact, Tamils are fully aware that Sri Lanka is finding ways and means to delay, deviate and finally by giving false promises and excuses will go on demanding more and more extensions until the death of the last victim of the war.
High Commissioner Bachelet’s call that “the Sri Lankan Government should now refocus its efforts on fulfilling its obligation to provide justice and accountability and honour its commitments to establish the truth about what happened and to promote reconciliation,”
In the meantime, there has been hardly any pressure on Sri Lanka to meet its obligations. This was despite President Maithripala Sirisena declaring on November 2017 that there won’t be “international war crimes tribunals or foreign judges,” Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, on February 16, 2019, asking the Tamils to “forget the past and move forward,” and the Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana, announcing on March 20, 2019 that the country’s constitution does not allow foreign judges, dismissing the idea of a hybrid court, an integral part of Resolution 30/1
Foreign judges; Sri Lanka has appointed foreign judges and eminent persons to investigate human rights abuses:
Example:-
The International Independent Group of Eminent Persons, abbreviated to IIGEP, was a group of individuals nominated by international donor countries and the government of Sri Lanka, vested with a wide mandate to observe all investigations and inquiries conducted by and on behalf of the Commission of Inquiry into alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. The following individuals were members of the IIGEP:
Justice P.N. Bhagwati, India – Chairman, invited by the President
Prof. Ivan Shearer, nominated by Australia
Prof. Bruce Matthews, nominated by Canada
Mr. Bernard Kouchner, France, nominated by the European Commission
Judge Jean-Pierre Cot,France, nominated by the European Commission and replacing Mr. Kouchner
Prof. Sir Nigel Rodley, nominated by the UK
Prof. Yozo Yokota, nominated by Japan
Cees Fasseur, nominated by the Netherlands
Arthur “Gene” Dewey, nominated by USA
Mr. Marzuki Darusman, (nominated by the Inter-Parliamentary Union)
Kamal Hussein, Bangladesh (nominated by OHCHR)
Mr. Andres Mauromatis, Cyprus (nominated by GoSL)
The mandate of the IIGEP has come under criticism from several human rights organisations, underlining its inherent weaknesses, including:
IIGEP did not have independent access to witnesses or conduct independent investigations, and the Commission of Inquiry early indicated that IIGEP were to observe and not investigate. The reports of the IIGEP where submitted to the President, who has the power to veto publication of information sensitive to national security – this is seen as especially disturbing given that Sri Lankan armed forces have been implicated in several of the killings that are to be investigated by the Commission of Inquiry. None of IIGEPs reports to the President have been publicized so far.
