Tamil activists in North-East question UN's hidden move on ‘domestic mechanism’
[TamilNet, Friday, 03 July 2015, 20:19 GMT]“[W]e take note with serious concern the recent announcement by the UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka that the UN has already decided to fund a domestic mechanism,” said 15 Tamil organisations from North-East in a letter forwarded through the Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday. The organizations have put forward two pertinent questions to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights: A) How could the UN system decide on supporting a domestic mechanism in abstraction when there has been no proposal or consultation about one? B) Does this announcement not pre-empt the recommendations of the OISL report and any possible follow up action by the UN Human Rights Council and other UN bodies?
“We urge you to take note of the contents of our letter and act swiftly to prevent any undermining of the OISL process,” the letter by the 15 groups, which are active in all the 8 districts of the Tamil homeland, said.
The Resident Coordinator had said that the UN had decided to provide ‘technical support to establish an inclusive and credible domestic mechanism to address human rights violations and accountability and provide redress to victims and conflict affected groups, including families of the missing, in line with international standards’. The announcement by the UN Resident Coordinator further stated that the move would be led by the OHCHR, which has already conducted the OISL investigation.
The civil groups were further complaining in their letter that there has been no process of consultation as Mr Zeid had promised it in his two different addresses, respectively in March and June 2015.
