IHL, Genocide & Investigation On Sri Lanka
By R.M.B Senanayake –February 10, 2016
RMB Senanayake
Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (Advance version)
The Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 255/1 in March 2014 requesting the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to “undertake a comprehensive investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of Human Rights and related crimes by both parties during the period covered by the LLRC to ensure accountability for any alleged violations and crimes.”
The mandate for the Investigation was to cover the period from February 2002 to November 2011. There was the Ceasefire Agreement of February 2002.
The Report is organized in a series of chapters under headings like “Unlawful Killings; ”Violations related to the depriving of liberty; Enforced Disappearances; Torture, Sexual and Gender based violence; Abduction and Forced disappearances; the recruitment and use of children in hostilities. There is also documentation on the impact of hostilities on civilians in the final few months of the conflict, by way of controls on the movement or civilians and the denial of humanitarian assistance.
The Report states that the OISL conducted a Human Rights investigation and not a criminal investigation. But it states that it sought to identify the patterns of large scale violations of International Human Rights and the humanitarian law. They were says the Report executed by a number of persons with a hierarchical command structure and may constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity if established in a Court of Law. It also refers to the impunity with which these violations have been carried out and points out that the victims and relations of such victims have been prevented from exercising their rights to truth, justice and reparations.
