With No Rule Of Law, Return To Fear & Uncertainty
Prof. S. Ratnajeevan H. Hoole
When we are ruled by the law, contracts can be freely entered in the confidence of enforceability. We can drive on the streets knowing that the police will not harass us so long as we drive properly. Indeed, we even have some protection from murderers and criminals in the confidence that they will be punished for harming us. What our institutions buy through proper procedures will be priced best. Our properties will appreciate since the rule of law is conducive to happy living. Our children will be with us instead of fleeing abroad. Alas, rule by the law seems to evade us Sri Lankans.
Impunity for War Crimes
As the Friday Forum states, “The President and Prime Minister in particular, have an important responsibility for leadership” in upholding the rule of law.” They have utterly failed us.
UNHRC Resolution 30/1 (A/HRC/30/L.29) which our government under the President and Prime Minister cosponsored and passed on 29 June, 2015, reads that the Council
“Recognizing that the investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka requested by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 25/1 was necessitated by the absence of a credible national process of accountability”
“1. Takes note with appreciation of the oral update presented by the United Nations High Commissioner […], the report of the Office of the High Commissioner on promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka and its investigation on Sri Lanka requested by the [HRC] in its resolution 25/1 [Footnote 2] including its findings and conclusions, and encourages the Government of Sri Lanka [GoSL] to implement the recommendations […];
“6. […] affirms in this regard the importance of participation in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism, including the special counsel’s office, of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorized prosecutors and investigators;”
Footnote 2 refers to A/HRC/30/CRP.2, the Report of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), detailing the atrocities by our armed forces and the LTTE. This report has therefore been endorsed and appreciated by our government and our judicial deficiencies accepted.
After the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 the President insisted that Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and integrity weren’t compromised, and stressed that the new journey started on 8 January must be persisted with, shunning extremists. Ranil Wickremesinghe said at the same time that the passage of the US resolution and the international community uniting for Sri Lanka were key for the country’s future wellbeing.
Now, however, the President boasts (Daily Mirror 4 March, 2017) to the SLFP executive committee that he had shown his ‘backbone’ to the International community by rejecting UNHRC Chief Zeid bin Ra-ad Al Hussein’s recommendation for a hybrid court to probe war crimes allegations in Sri Lanka. If the President truly has a backbone, why did he cosponsor 30/1? Did the President and PM lie in promising what they had no plans to do? Having done nothing, are they trying to buy time and still lying because in the new cosponsored resolution, they are calling upon GoSL to “fully implement” measures that are outstanding from the 2015 UN resolution?
