The UNHRC and International Justice

Parasaran Rangarajan for Salem-News.com-Feb-17-2014

Reviewing the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in relation to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

(NEW YORK) - The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) was established in 2006 via Resolution 60/251 ¹.

The responsibility of the body is not only to promote human rights but to have the ability to make recommendations thereon.

To date, it has initiated only two Commissions of Inquiry on allegations of human rights abuses and war crimes with regards to North Korea and Syria although resolutions have been passed for experts to investigate the situations in other countries such as Eritrea through the democratic process of voting on resolutions introduced.

Many members and organizations have criticized the UNHRC for not being able to do more to protect human rights and ensure justice. Therefore, the rule of law and interests of justice in relation to the promotion of human rights at UNHRC should be reviewed. Recently, it has been reported the UNHRC will be making a recommendation for prosecuting North Korea at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for “crimes against humanity” and “extermination”².

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria is still conducting its work. The ICC was established in 2002 after extensive deliberations with its founding document, the Rome Statute³.

The pre-conditions to the exercise of jurisdiction are outlined in Article 12 of the Statute and require for the accused party to be a member State or be referred by the U.N. Security Council. Therefore, any work the UNHRC conducts would need to have the vetting of the Security Council unless a State referral is conducted through Article 14.

In accordance with Articles 121 and 122 of the Rome Statue as well as Rule 76 of the Rules of Procedure of the Assembly of State Parties, amendments to the governing legislature of the ICC may be proposed by any State party to ICC and ratified by the Assembly of State Parties or 2/3 vote of the States Parties⁴.

Working Groups for the specific topic are established to study the topic in detail for the Bureau of 21 members to take a final decision if the Statue is to be amended. The role of the UNHRC in relation to the promotion of human rights by ensuring justice at the ICC established in 2002 by direct referral to satisfy jurisdictional requirements is a topic which has not been brought up since its inception.

However, this should be considered as it would be in the interests of advancing international jurisprudence as well as an efficient way to deliver justice where the Security Council has been scrutinized for its veto power as those committing serious violations of international law will be held accountable through democracy.

The ICC would not be exceeding its mandate as it would be working with a U.N. body as allowed under Article 2 of the Rome Statute to take up a case and nor impose jurisdiction in a unfairly as UNHRC members would vote upon such a resolution. Only if the Rome Statute is amended in such a manner to allow for the UNHRC to directly refer alleged war criminals to the ICC could either of its Commissions of Inquiry on North Korea or Syria have any effect to deliver justice or it is expected they will be vetoed by China or Russia (or both) at the Security Council.

This will hold true for any future controversial area of the world where human rights violations occur and the democracy of the UNHRC imposes its will to conduct an investigation as findings of violations may always be vetoed by other members of the Security Council.

Earlier, I had written an article on bypassing the Security Council for the ICC to exercise jurisdiction on a non-State party by combining the doctrine of a Joint Criminal Enterprise in association with an Article 14 referral with regards to the situation of Sri Lanka⁵.

Although there is a role for each body of the U.N. to play in the international legal system, the Security Council which many agree requires reforms, has hindered the international judicial process as of late and allows for violations to continue resulting in the loss of human life.

If this continues, UNHRC Commissions of Inquiry or Expert Investigations would only be a short term measure used as a pre-text for other actions. However, it cannot be argued that the current work of the UNHRC is not required regardless of the final outcome of these investigations as it ensures basic victim rights such as the right to know what occurred, protecting victims through international mechanisms, etc.

The relatively new UNHRC has a larger role to play. It can do more than to just investigate allegations and pass on recommendations on to the Security Council or other U.N. organs as it is a democratically elected body of the United Nations where its resolutions and subsequent international investigations are also established through the democratic process of voting.

As such, it would not be an “abuse of process” by the independent ICC to take up a referral by the UNHRC for jurisdictional purposes as the UNHRC would not be exceeding its original mandate it was given by the international community but working in coordination with the ICC; completely within the original mandate of Resolution 60/251 as interpreted under Sections 2 and 3 to protect and promote human rights.

A proposal by a State party to amend the Rome Statute and allow jurisdictional requirements of the ICC to be met through recommendation by the UNHRC after it completes an investigation would be in the interests of advancing international jurisprudence and furthermore; allow for the United Nations system to be more effective in delivering justice for serious violations of international law.

¹ http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/A.RES.60.251_En.pdf

² http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765647746/Crimes-against-humanity-in-NKorea-UN-panel-finds.html?pg=all

³ http://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/ea9aeff7-5752-4f84-be94-0a655eb30e16/0/rome_statute_english.pdf

⁴ http://legal.un.org/icc/asp/1stsession/report/english/part_ii_c_e.pdf

⁵ http://www.salem-news.com/articles/december112013/unsc-investigation-pr.php

Rwandan priest in UK faces probe over allegations of role in 1994 genocide

Rt Rev Jonathan Ruhumuliza was a bishop in Rwanda, where he is accused of being a 'propagandist' for Hutu extremists

Rt Rev Jonathan Ruhumuliza, priest at St Mary and All Saints church, Hampton Lovett, in Worcestershire.

Chris McGreal-Saturday 15 February 2014 

The Church of England is investigating a Rwandan bishop who is now serving as a parish priest in Worcestershire over "disturbing" allegations that he was a propagandist for leaders of his country's 1994 genocide and complicit in sending Tutsis to their deaths.

The church said it had been unaware of the most serious accusations when it appointed the Right Rev Jonathan Ruhumuliza in 2005, even though they had been widely aired during and after the genocide, in which 800,000 Tutsis were murdered, and which led to a schism within the Anglican church in Rwanda.

The church said it was "disturbed" by allegations – made in human rightsreports and brought to its attention by an Observer investigation – that Ruhumuliza collaborated in endangering Tutsis with another Anglican bishop, who was arrested by a UN tribunal on genocide charges.

Ruhumuliza, who serves St Mary and All Saints church in Hampton Lovett, Worcestershire, is also the target of an investigation by Rwandan authorities. Peter Selby, former bishop of Worcester, who appointed Ruhumuliza, called on the church to ask police to investigate the "deeply shocking" allegations.

The Observer has learned that Ruhumuliza was denied a work permit for two years by the Home Office, in part because of statements by him effectively denying the genocide, and amid concerns over his actions in Rwanda when he was accused by his own archbishop of being an "errand boy" for the Hutu extremist government. The Home Office reversed the decision after the Church of England hired a lawyer for Ruhumuliza.

In the 1990s, Human Rights Watch described him as "acting as a spokesman for the genocidal government" for his efforts to deceive foreign churches and powers into believing that the politicians and soldiers leading the killings were in fact trying to stop them.

The London-based group African Rights named Ruhumuliza in a 1998 appeal to the World Council of Churches to examine the complicity of Anglican clergy in the genocide. It accused him not only of being a "propagandist" for the Hutu extremist government, but of working with another bishop in refusing shelter to Tutsis facing imminent death and of exposing others to attack.

Selby said: "The accusations were never drawn to my attention. If I had ever been aware of the contents of the document, I don't think it would have entered my mind that we could give him a place unless he gave me answers to the questions that that document raises which I found satisfactory.

"If there is a level of complicity in the genocide of the kind that the human rights document states then I find it completely astonishing and unacceptable that that's not dealt with by due legal process. Which would result, I think, first of all in his not being allowed to stay here but which might result in the matter being referred to criminal authorities."

Selby said that after Ruhumuliza's appointment to his diocese he became aware of allegations that the bishop acted as a propagandist for the genocide regime but had received what he regarded as satisfactory explanations from him. However, he said that now he has seen contemporary news and human rights reports, Ruhumuliza's "account doesn't square" with them.

Selby said checks on the clergyman's background were the responsibility of the Church of England headquarters at Lambeth Palace and he believed there had been "a very bad, probably a serious failure, of all sorts of systems and persons".

The church said Ruhumuliza's appointment was made following checks in which "no evidence was found of complicity in the Rwandan genocide". It said it is now investigating the allegations in the African Rights document.

But Ibuka, the genocide survivors' association in Rwanda, which has been campaigning for clergy implicated in genocide and now living in Europe to be brought to trial, criticised the Church of England. Ibuka's president, Jean Pierre Dusingizemungu, said it had failed to examine Ruhumuliza's past when there were reasons for it to ask questions.

He said: "We do not see why churches refuse to face history and reality. Instead of hiring and promoting these people, they should check on their role during the genocide. These people are known. We do not see how they can hold positions when there are files on them."

Ruhumuliza, who also works as ministry, education and training officer for black and Asian Anglicans at the Queen's Foundation for Ecumenical Theological Education in Birmingham, initially agreed to be interviewed about his actions in 1994 but later declined.

Chris McGreal's Guardian Short ebook on the legacy of the Rwandan genocide will be published in March. Sign up to the mailing list for news

On Sri Lanka, Tamils "Shame Ban Ki-moon" at UN As Pillay Report Leaks

By Matthew Russell Lee

UNITED NATIONS, February 15 -- As the Sri Lanka resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in March grows closer, the Sunday Times has excerpted High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay's report, see below.  Meanwhile on February 12 Tamils protested in front of the UN in New York, chanting "Ban Ki-moon, shame on you," under the watchful eye of a Sinhalese UN Security officer known to report to the Sri Lanka mission to the UN (he asked a photograph for his photos of the protest -- he refused). This is the UN.

   The same United Nations Correspondents Association which screened the Rajapaksa government's denial of war crimes, "Lies Agreed To" complete with speech by Shavendra Silva (here recounted in Italian along with Reuters' censorship) is set for another in its propaganda film series. 

  Now, however, after UNCA tried to get Inner City Press thrown out of the UN, it is confronted by the new Free UN Coalition of Access, of which the photographer who refused is a member. FUNCA last week protested the withholding of any transcript of Ban Ki-moon's Q&A with UNCA; while Inner City Press covers and will continue to cover Ban's post Sri Lanka failure "Rights Up Front" plan, it appears that like Ukraine was not raised in UNCA's "secret" Q&A.

Inner City Press @innercitypress

Photo: #SriLanka Tamil demonstration in front of #UN Feb 12, 2014, they chant "shame on #BanKiMoon"

1:27 PM - 12 Feb 2014

On Sri Lanka Tamils Shame Ban Ki-Moon at UN as Pillay Report Leaks by nelvely

Pillay’s bombshell report corners Rajapaksa regime

By Our Political Editor-Sunday, February 16, 2014

A damning 20-page report from United Nations Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay became the subject of close scrutiny by the UPFA Government this week.  Pillay’s office urged the Government, as is the practice, to respond to the contents of this 74-point report — the precursor to the United States backed latest resolution on Sri Lanka next month — within a week. The External Affairs Ministry (EAM), which co-ordinated the point by point answers converting it to a formal document kept to the deadline which was last Wednesday (February 12). It was sent to Ravinatha Ariyasinha, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative at the United Nations in Geneva, for onward transmission. The Pillay report too had earlier been channelled through him to the Government in Colombo. It will be made public by the Human Rights Council just days before the 25th sessions which begin on March 3 or in less than two weeks.

Pillay’s bombshell report corners Rajapaksa regime by nelvely

Wigneswaran Contradicts 

Sampanthan

| by Manekshaw

( February 16, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Northern Province Chief Minister, C.V. Wigneswaran, in a clear deviation from the long-held stance of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and its Leader, R. Sampanthan, said on Thursday (13) that the Tamils cannot expect total power sharing.

He said this, while addressing the ‘National Conference on Post-war Socio Economic Development of the Northern and Eastern Provinces of Sri Lanka’ held at Hotel Taj Samudra in Colombo.

Wigneswaran Contradicts by nelvely

TNA Stands Ground

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) says it will not take part in the Parliament Select Committee (PSC) on the National issue as the Government had failed to fulfill promises given in the past.

Indian Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh told a group of visiting Sri Lankan journalists in New Delhi last week that the Government of Sri Lanka must resume a substantive dialogue with the TNA for a political settlement and reconciliation. “India has consistently urged the Sri Lankan Government to take forward the process of broader dialogue so that we can see some concrete movement towards a meaningful devolution of powers including the implementation of the 13th Amendment and beyond,” she said.

In response to her comments, Sumanthiran told The Sunday Leader that the Sri Lankan Government has consistently agreed with India that they would ‘implement the 13th amendment in full and go beyond that to achieve meaningful devolution’ and this is even contained in joint communiqué between the two governments.

However, he noted that the promise has not been kept and far short of even implementing the 13th amendment in full, the Government has not allowed the Northern Provincial Council to function in the way other provincial councils function. “The law requires the Chief Secretary to be appointed with the concurrence of the Chief Minister. But after repeated assurances even that simple action has not been taken,” he said.

Sumanthiran also noted that India has consistently urged the government to engage with the TNA to arrive at an acceptable political solution. “The Government, after commencing dialogue with the TNA in January 2011, did not respond to the TNA’s proposals for a full year and then, contrary to agreement walked away from the bilateral talks. Thereafter the Government keeps insisting the TNA join the Parliamentary Select Committee. This too is contrary to the agreement reached with the TNA, which are all recorded and confirmed in the minutes of the bilateral talks. This is the reason the TNA is unable to join the PSC,” he added.

The TNA MP also said that the Indo-Lanka Accord is a bilateral treaty between two sovereign nations, which provides for genuine power sharing arrangement with the Tamil speaking people in the North-East of the country, and therefore it is legitimate and obligatory for India to raise these matters with the Sri Lankan Government and urge them to comply with their obligations under the treaty.

Rathika Slams Conservatives on Separating New Canadian Families

Sunday, February 16, 2014

The Origins Of Neoliberalism

By Kumar David -February 16, 2014 

Prof Kumar David

Masters of the Universe by Daniel Steadman Jones. Princeton University Press, 418 pages, 2011- Book Review

Many people are not clear about the difference between classical economics and neoliberalism; to put it starkly, neoliberalism is classical economics plus a political ideology. While the original version (Smith, Ricardo, Mill, Marshall and Walras) was focussed on economic theory – liaises faire, production & value, exchange & trade, marginal utility – and only a little involved in politics, for neoliberals the principal task is a political crusade to save the world from collectivism – Nazism, Soviet Communism, socialism, Keynesianism, British social democracy and American New Deal liberalism. After the war, to this list of evils was added third world populism and state intervention. Neoliberalism is politics plus an obsessive emphasis on free-markets stirred into classical economics; it makes no theoretical or conceptual breakthroughs or innovations of its own.

In economic theory there is little, just one and a half items, that neoliberalism brings to classical theory; monetarism gets one mark, and the half-mark is for rational-choice theory where market clearing concepts are carried into other domains such as government. Separating neoliberalism from its classical ancestor is an obsessive preoccupation with free-markets. While classical economics created the theory of markets, market clearing, marginal utility and equilibrium theory, and also examined the effects of market distortion (monopoly), it did not suffer from a maniacal obsession with liassez-faire. This is a trademark of neoliberalism since it is a crucial political weapon in the crusade against collectivism and socialism, which are deemed to be mortal enemies of individualism and hence the antithesis of freedom, democracy and Western civilisation.

The birth of neoliberalism

Masters of the Universe by Daniel Steadman Jones. Princeton University Press, 418 pages, 2011.

Neoliberalism, in its early days in the 1930s and 1940s was a political ideology and a philosophy; the side that later came to the fore as neoliberal economics was then a junior partner. The founding fathers were Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973), Freidrich  Hayek (1889-1992) and Karl Popper (1902-1994), all Austrians and all exiles from Nazism. They saw in Nazism, Soviet Communism and Mussolini’s fascism the evil face of collectivism trampling individual freedoms. After the war their critique of collectivism extended to the Beveridge Report (1942) advocating social welfare, Clement Atlee’s (prime minister 1945-51) far reaching social democracy and nationalisations, and Aneurian Bevan’s National Health Service (1948). Their theoretical targets were the paradigms underpinning British social democracy and American liberalism from 1945 to the 1970s, Keynesian economics.

In America they saw a similar danger to liberty in the collectivism built into Roosevelt’s New Deal in several Acts promoting public expenditure, labour unions, social security and fair wages, and later in Johnson’s Great Society and the Civil Rights Movement. War kept them in harness, but afterwards they issued three manifestos – von Mises’ The Road to Serfdom (1944), Hayek’sBureaucracy (1944), and Popper’s Open Society and its Enemies (1945). Thus was launched the essential standpoint of neoliberal philosophy. Crass neoliberal economics of the IMF-World Bank type of the 1970s, the political highpoint in the Regan-Thatcher era, and the gory glory of finance capital in the 1990s, came later; philosophically, these were but crude caricatures of the original discourse.                                  Read More  

UK ‘concerned at military involvement in civilian activities’

13 Feb 2014 : Column 731W

Sri Lanka

Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent assessment he has made of reports of discriminatory practices towards the Tamil people in Sri Lanka relating to (a) political rights, (b) education and(c) appropriation of land. [197620]

Mr Swire: We continue to monitor closely civil and political rights as well as land issues in Sri Lanka. We welcomed the Northern Provincial Council elections in Sri Lanka, which took place in September 2013. This was the first provincial council election held in the predominantly Tamil north since the 1987 establishment of provincial councils. The opposition, Tamil National Alliance, won over 80% of the vote. Local election observers noted that elections were

“relatively free from violence, though not from intimidation”.

13 Feb 2014 : Column 736W

We have expressed concerns at military involvement in civilian activities in the north and are aware of reports that the military are involved in education.

The Prime Minister raised land rights and militarisation in the north of Sri Lanka during his November meeting with the Sri Lankan President Rajapaska. He called for a meaningful political settlement with the north, including demilitarisation and full implementation of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) recommendations.

We continue to underline to the Sri Lankan authorities the need for a long-term political settlement to address these underlying grievances and will continue to monitor these issues.

Mr Jim Murphy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what steps his Department is taking in Sri Lanka to create lasting peace and reconciliation. [197621]

Mr Swire: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I have given to question 186379 on 6 February 2013, Official Report,column 358W.

Staff

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what proportion of staff of (a) his Department and (b) agencies and public bodies accountable to him work outside of London; and in which local authorities such staff are located. [187268]

Hugh Robertson: Working outside London, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have staff in the following local authority areas: London borough of Croydon (less than 1%) and Milton Keynes (9%).

FCO Services have staff in Milton Keynes (68%).

Wilton Park has staff in Horsham district council (100%).

British Council have staff in Belfast city council (0.35%), Cardiff city council (0.37%), City of Edinburgh council (0.56%) and Manchester city council (2.99%).

Westminster Foundation for Democracy have no staff working outside London.

Great Britain-China Centre have no staff working outside London.

Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission do not employ staff.

Tiger, Still Burning Bright?

| by Tisaranee Gunasekara

“For the enemy to be recognised and feared, he has to be in your home or on your doorstep.”

Umberto Eco (The Prague Cemetery)

(February 16, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, an alleged ‘secret-plan’ by Jewish leaders for world domination, took the occident by storm in the early 20th Century. Even after it was exposed as a forgery perpetrated by the Tsarist secret police (a sham culled from two works of literature – a French satire and a German novel), it continued to excite the fanatical imagination of anti-Semitics and became a major influence on Adolf Hitler.

Tiger, Still Burning Bright by nelvely

Executive Presidency:Single Issue or Non-Issue?

by Rajan Philips-February 15, 2014, 5:49 pm 

The law of presidential terms seems to work in funny ways in Sri Lanka. A limited term system usually turns an incumbent into a lame duck in his final term. President Rajapaksa’s unlimited term seems to have turned him into a permanent lame duck, but more in its executive sense than in its political sense. Mahinda Rajapaksa is presiding over a government that is abusing its power even to the extent of trying to change the intent of legislation through extraordinarily surreptitious gazette extraordinaire. That is what the Secretary to the Ministry of Higher Education is alleged to have done in regard to the University Act of 1978. By substituting the word "may" for "shall" the Secretary tried to remove the mandatory requirement that higher education institutions granting professional degrees must be accredited by the respective professional bodies. Administrative purists would consider this to be a far more heinous white collar crime than what the PM’s office pipsqueak did writing to the customs to clear for his buddy a shipment of heroin from Pakistan.

Executive Presidency Single Issue or Non-Issue by nelvely

UN seeks foreign probe of Sri Lanka war crimes

he UN's human rights chief has recommended an international investigation into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka 

(AFP Photo

Colombo (AFP) - The United Nations' human rights chief has recommended an international investigation into war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the final stages of its Tamil separatist conflict, a report said Sunday.

The local Sunday Times newspaper in Sri Lanka said Navi Pillay has asked the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to set up an independent probe, saying that Colombo "consistently failed to establish the truth" and ensure accountability for the atrocities, despite repeated calls.

"Establish an international inquiry mechanism to further investigate the alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law and monitor any domestic accountability process," the Sunday Times quoted Pillay as saying.

The newspaper quoted from Pillay's report to next month's UNHRC sessions in Geneva, an advance copy of which had been given to Colombo for its observations. It accused Sri Lanka of failing to probe rights abuses and continuing to violate democratic freedoms.

There was no immediate comment from the Sri Lankan foreign ministry, but Colombo has repeatedly said that its troops did not commit any war crimes.

However, it has asked for more time to ensure ethnic reconciliation between majority Sinhalese and minority ethnic Tamils.

Pillay's recommendations noted fresh emerging evidence of what took place during the final stages of the ethnic war that ended in May 2009 with the crushing of the top leadership of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in a no-holds-barred offensive.

The UN has previously alleged that up to 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed during the final months of fighting and blamed many of the atrocities on government forces, a charge Colombo vehemently denies.

"...National mechanisms have consistently failed to establish the truth and achieve justice (in Sri Lanka)," Pillay noted. "The High Commissioner (Pillay) believes this can no longer be explained as a function of time or technical capacity, but that it is fundamentally a question of political will."

The United States, which leads international calls for war crimes investigations in Sri Lanka, has said it will move its third censure resolution against Colombo in as many years when the UNHRC holds its next session from early March.

A report released by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre in Australia earlier this month claimed that Sri Lankan soldiers committed the "vast majority" of crimes in a final government offensive against the Tamil Tigers who fought for outright independence.

The UN has estimated that at least 100,000 people were killed in Sri Lanka's Tamil separatist war between 1972 and 2009.

India’s snub to Lanka: “We’re not brothers, we’re just pals”

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid on Tuesday delivered a telling snub to Lanka when he declared to a visiting Sri Lankan media delegation in his New Delhi office: “We are not the big brother, we are just partners”

India’s snub to Lanka “We’re not brothers, we’re just pals” by nelvely