The Peoples’ Tribunal on Sri Lanka - Session II 7th - 10th December 2013 Bremen, Germany
- Tuesday, 03 December 2013
PPT's panel of judges to hear accusations of Genocide against the Sri Lankan State and charges of complicity with this crime against several other countries The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal will be conducting the Second Session of the Peoples’
Tribunal on Sri Lanka from the 7th to the 10th of December 2013 in Bremen, Germany. In the First Session, which was held in January 2010 in Dublin, Ireland, the panel of judges had determined, that 'War Crimes' and 'Crimes against Humanity' had taken place on the Tamil population during the final months of the war in Sri Lanka. It also held that pressure from the UK/USA governments contributed to the breakdown of 2002 peace process between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Government of Sri Lanka, precipitating the war. Though the charges put forward to the Panel at that time did not contain the accusation of genocide, due to the character of the evidence put before them, the PPT panel of judges determined that further investigation may be necessary regarding the question of genocide.
Since then, the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal has approved the submission of the International Human Rights Association Bremen (IMRV) and the Irish Forum for Peace in Sri Lanka (IFPSL), that substantial new evidence necessitate a second round of investigations to determine whether Genocide has been and is being committed against the Tamil people in Sri Lanka. Like in the first session, a respected panel of judges consisting of experts in Genocide studies, former UN-officials, experts in international law and renowned peace and human rights activists will hear the evidence that is presented and make a determination.
Follows the list of judges in alphabetic order:
Gabriele Della Morte is a researcher and Professor of International Law at the Università Cattolica di Milano. He was also associate professor in International system, institutions and rules, Chargé de cours at the Académie de droit international humanitaire et des droits de l'homme of Geneva (2007-2008), counsel for the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) (2003-2004), Law Clerk for the Prosecutor Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (2000) and member of a government delegation for the establishment of the International Criminal Court (1998).
José Elías Esteve Molto, international lawyer and legal expert on Tibet. He is the main lawyer who researched and drafted both lawsuits for international crimes committed in Tibet and a recent one for crimes in Burma. He is a Professor in International Law at the University of Valencia.
Daniel Feierstein - Director of the Centre for Genocide Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Professor in the Faculty of Genocide at the University of Buenos Aires and a member of CONICET (Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas
Tecnicas - The Argentine National Centre for Scholars). He has been elected as the president of the 'International Association of Genocide Scholars'.
Sévane Garibian - An expert on Genocide and International Law. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Geneva and Lecturer at the University of Neuchâtel, where she teaches Legal Philosophy and International Criminal Law. Her work focuses on issues related to law facing State crimes.
Haluk Gerger - A respected academic and a Middle East analyst who was imprisoned in Turkey for his political activism. He is known for his support for Kurdish people's right to self-determination.
Javier Giraldo Moreno - Colombian Theologian and human rights activist based in Bogota. Known for his depth of analysis in contextualising genocide affected communities. He is Vice-President of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal.
Denis Halliday - Former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. He resigned from his 34 year old career in the UN in protest of the economic sanctions imposed on Iraq by the Security Council. Laureate of the Gandhi International Peace Award.
Manfred O. Hinz - Professor for Public Law, Political Sociology and Sociology of Law at the University of Bremen. He has a long history of engagement in solidarity with liberation struggles in Africa, specially Namibia and the West Sahara. He, for several years, held the UNESCO chair for human rights and democracy of the University of Namibia whilst he was a professor there.
Helen Jarvis - She served as Chief of the Public Affairs Section from the inception of the the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), the special Cambodian court which receives international assistance through the United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials (UNAKRT). The court is commonly referred to by the more informal name the Khmer Rouge Tribunal or the Cambodia ribunal.
ØysteinTveter - A Norwegian scholar of International Law and a member of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal on extra-judicial killings and violations of human rights in the Philippines.
Maung Zarni - He is a Burmese democracy activist who founded the Free Burma Coalition in 1995. He is one of the few Burmese intellectuals who have come forward to unconditionally oppose the increased discrimination and violence against the Rohingya Muslims and publicly criticised Aung San Suu Kyi on this issue.
