Judges and human rights activists from the African States of South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana, Kenya, and Seychelles, and the South Asian States of India, Pakistan, Nepal, and Sri Lanka participated in a Judicial Dialogue titled ‘Decolonising Jurisprudence: Protecting the rights of dignity, privacy, equality and non-discrimination of marginalised people in post-colonial States’ recently.
The event, held from 25-26 March at Mahe Island, Seychelles, was organised by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
Participants from Sri Lanka included Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka Justice Buwaneka Aluwihare, PC, University of Colombo Senior Lecturer of Law Dr. Visakesa Chandrasekaram, and Attorney-at-Law Dimithri Wijesinghe. ICJ’s National Legal Advisor for Sri Lanka Mathuri Thamilmaran served on the organising committee for the event.
The welcome speech on the first day of the Judicial Dialogue was delivered by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Seychelles, Ronny James Govindan.
The Dialogue saw enthusiastic participation by the judges and activists on topics ranging from ‘Colonialism and Sexualities,’ to the usefulness of the application of international human rights law and standards in domestic jurisprudence. The participants at the dialogue engaged in a robust discussion about the Yogyakarta Principles (YP) and the YP+10 on the application of human rights standards to sexual orientation and gender identity.
The participants were also introduced to ICJ’s new publication, ‘The 8 March Principles for a Human Rights-Based Approach to Criminal Law Proscribing Conduct Associated with Sex, Reproduction, Drug Use, HIV, Homelessness and Poverty,’ which they pledged to use in their future work.
A key session of the dialogue looked at seminal judgments from the Asian and African courts relating to sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression (SOGIE); the panellists for this session were some of the authors of these key judicial decisions. Other sessions looked at the interplay between the rights to life, dignity, and privacy with the right to equal protection of the law and non-discrimination.
Justice Aluwihare spoke about the Sri Lankan jurisprudence on equality and non-discrimination and its development. He stated that in Sri Lanka international human rights law was not binding but only of persuasive value. He nonetheless highlighted cases in which the courts had taken cognisance of human rights developments in the regional and international spheres.
Attorney Wijesinghe spoke about the barriers to access to justice in Sri Lanka faced by sexual and gender minorities, drawing from her work experience with ICJ’s three partner organisations in Sri Lanka who together form BRIDGE to Equality.
Dr. Chandrasekeram shared experiences faced by the movement for equality and human rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals in Sri Lanka, including instances of mobilisation and the dangers that exist due to lack of protection in the law.
The participants at the dialogue were entirely in agreement that criminalisation of consensual same-sex relationships and SOGIE-based discrimination were a result of British colonial concepts being entrenched through law and that it is a necessity now to create awareness that neither criminalisation of consensual same-sex conduct nor discrimination against people on account of their real or imputed SOGIE was part of the rich cultural heritage of their respective countries prior to colonialism.
It was also noted that cross-cultural sharing of jurisprudence would be of value to future judgments and advocacy.
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