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Top rights groups urge strong UN resolution

14 Sep 2022

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) should adopt a strong resolution on Sri Lanka that strengthens current UN mandates on accountability for crimes under international law, monitors the country’s deteriorating human rights situation, and calls upon Sri Lanka to address ongoing abuses, including by ending the use of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), said four international human rights organisations in a letter to UNHRC Member States published yesterday (13). At the 51st session of the UNHRC, which began on 12 September, Member States were scheduled to review and update a March 2021 resolution that established a UN accountability project to collect and prepare evidence of international crimes committed in Sri Lanka for use in future prosecutions and mandated the UN to monitor and report on the current situation in the country. The four organisations, namely Amnesty International, FORUM-ASIA, Human Rights Watch, and the International Commission of Jurists noted in their letter that it is essential to renew and strengthen those mandates, including with additional resources. “For many years the victims of past abuses in Sri Lanka have demanded justice, while successive governments have broken promises, blocked accountability, and promoted those implicated in war crimes to high office,” said Human Rights Watch South Asia Director Meenakshi Ganguly. “The UN Human Rights Council should adopt a resolution on Sri Lanka that presses the Government to uphold accountability and the rule of law.” In a wide-ranging report released on 6 September, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet described how “deepening militarisation and lack of transparency and accountability in governance… have embedded impunity for serious human rights violations and created an environment for corruption and the abuse of power”. In the absence of accountability within Sri Lanka, she said that UN member states should prosecute Sri Lankans accused of committing international crimes in foreign courts under the principle of universal jurisdiction and support efforts to trace and freeze stolen assets held abroad. The High Commissioner also called for an international role in investigations into the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings, which killed over 250 people, noting that there remain unanswered questions over the role of the Sri Lankan security forces. “The High Commissioner has presented clear findings that require urgent international action to end impunity and provide for justice to Sri Lankans,” said International Commission of Jurists Senior Legal Advisor and UN Representative Massimo Frigo. “A decade of Human Rights Council engagement on Sri Lanka has been a source of hope for victims and resulted in sporadic and unfulfilled pledges to reform, the council needs to give the issue sustained attention.” On 8 September, President Wickremesinghe appointed three people implicated in human rights abuses as Government ministers, it was pointed out.  “These ministerial appointments show that the Wickremesinghe administration cannot be expected to credibly pursue accountability for human rights violations or uphold the rule of law,” said FORUM-ASIA UN Advocacy Programme Manager Ahmed Adam. “The alarming situation in the country today calls for a robust and clear-eyed resolution from the Human Rights Council to protect the rights of people in Sri Lanka.” In their letter to member states, the groups said that the new Human Rights Council resolution should address threats to human rights in Sri Lanka and violations connected to the country’s present crisis.  They stated that the resolution should call on the Government to “respect the rights of people to freely and peacefully protest and express their views without fear of reprisal or arrest; end the harassment, intimidation, and arbitrary arrest of people believed to have participated in or supported recent protests; repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act and issue an immediate moratorium on its use in the interim period, review the detention of those held under the law, immediately release all those not facing internationally recognisable charges, and ensure that everyone detained under the law, including those in pretrial detention, are tried promptly and fairly in a regular court; and restore the independence of the Judiciary and Human Rights Commission.” “Time and again, we have seen successive Sri Lankan governments make commitments to the Human Rights Council that are then broken or disavowed,” said Amnesty International South Asia Director Yamini Mishra. “Member States should press Sri Lanka on its commitments and call for action now to end the abuses that are taking place while renewing and enhancing the UN’s mandates to monitor the situation and pursue accountability for past abuses.”    


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