CHOGM No-Show If Human Rights A No-Go
By Belinda Cranston -November 11, 2013
Belinda Cranston
There is little point in delegates gathering at the forthcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Sri Lanka unless rule of law issues in the South Asian nation are raised, a Sri Lankan human rights lawyer says.
The meeting, which will be opened by Prince Charles on 15 November, has already been boycotted by Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who has criticised the host country for failing to investigate human-rights violations during its 29-year civil war.
Kishali Pinto-Jayawardena, who is delivering two public lectures at ANU next week, says countries including Australia are obliged to discuss the unravelling of the rule of law in Sri Lanka while attending the CHOGM meeting in Colombo.
Rule of law refers to a legal system in which the law is able to impose meaningful restraints on a country’s government.
“If a country were to take the position that it observed the rule of law in its own country, but is not concerned about that not being observed in other countries…I do not think that attitude is a reasonable one,” she said.
“And I do not think that that attitude is appropriate.”
For ‘ordinary’ Sri Lankans, Pinto-Jayawardena maintained CHOGM was of little relevance.
“Because the rule of law is not being enforced by the host country,” she said.
Pinto-Jayawardena attributes the ‘complete and utter breakdown’ of the country’s legal system following the end of the civil war in 2009, to the centralisation of power in one person – namely Sri Lankan presidentMahinda Rajapaksa.
No Fire Zone Was Chilling, Tweets British PM
November 11, 2013 |
British Prime Minister David Cameron who watched the controversial documentary No Fire Zone by Callum Macrae over the weekend, tweeted that he would have “serious questions” to raise with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa when he arrived in Colombo for the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) later this week.
David Cameron
Cameron said on his official Twitter account that he had seen the documentary that alleges to show footage giving evidence of serious war crimes committed by the Sri Lankan armed forces that it had been a “chilling documentary.”
Amid pressure for the British Prime Minister to boycott CHOGM in protest against Colombo’s terrible human rights record, Cameron and members of his Government have repeatedly assured the Parliament and the media that they would be going to Sri Lanka to “talk tough” in person to the Rajapaksa regime.
