Statement made by Mr. Gary Anandasangaree at the UN Human Rights Council on March 20th 2013 on behalf of Lawyers Rights Watch Canada

Item 2: General Debate (Specific Country Reports)

Organization: Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada

Presenter: Gary Anandasangaree

Thank you Mr. President, Madam High Commissioner, Your Excellencies:

Lawyer’s Rights Watch Canada welcomes your report on Sri Lanka. We note that this is the first comprehensive report undertaken on Sri Lanka by your office.

We welcome your reference to the Panel of Experts Report and would call upon you to encourage this Council to adopt it as a formal document. We reject the statements of Minister Samarasinghe and others that this was a “private consultation” undertaken by the Secretary General. We wish to remind this Council that the Secretary General is the head of the United Nations and as such cannot commission private work – in effect, all of his undertaking ought to be in the public realm, inline with the principles of transparency and accountability.

Your report outlines the litany past and present violations of human Rights in Sri Lanka, however, we wish to stress the urgent need to address the imminent loss of democratic space, and franchise for the Tamil people in the North and East of the island.

The North and East of Sri Lanka are traditional Tamil territory with a unique language and culture. Sri Lanka has undertaken a campaign against the Tamil people to systematically mute their voice, and agency over a 65 year period. This campaign has progressively curtailed the democratic franchise of Tamils in the East. The same ruthless program is now undertaken in the North. Increased militarization, land grab, and the establishment of new Sinhalese settlements in traditional Tamil areas are exasperating the Sinhalization and Budhization of the North, This is no longer an armed conflict – but a demographic one – one that is based on artificially changing the population that would assimilate Tamils as one monolithic group within the island. This campaign should also be viewed in the context of, and in the absence of a proper, a peace proposal.

Finally, we are encouraged by your resolve to ensure that accountability takes place in Sri Lanka, and to that end we echo your call for “a credible international investigation into alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law.” We thank you for discharging your duties with diligence, care, and integrity.

Thank you Mr. President.