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UNHRC sessions: Lanka turns down invitation to co-sponsor new resolution
A new resolution will be brought before the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva by the Core Group on Sri Lanka — Canada, Germany, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Britain — after the Government turned down an invitation to co-sponsor one.
While civil society sources indicated that its text is “conciliatory”, Admiral (Prof) Jayanath Colombage, Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that it would also be “politically challenging” to the Government to agree to even a “consensus resolution”, which would see Sri Lanka refrain from objecting at the UNHRC.
There had been no question of co-sponsoring a resolution that “actually brought down the Government, having been against the constitution, against sovereignty and against the people”. “And even a consensus resolution, I can’t say whether it will or will not happen, but, politically, it will be a huge challenge”.
At the sessions in March last year, the Government under newly-elected President Gotabaya Rajapaksa withdrew from resolution 30/1 which Sri Lanka co-sponsored at the UNHRC in 2015. It also withdrew from subsequent roll-over resolutions 34/1 and 40/1. These moves were aimed at promoting “reconciliation, accountability and human rights” in the country. Several commitments were made, such as to “establish a judicial mechanism with a special counsel to investigate allegations of violations and abuses of human rights and violations of international humanitarian law”.
Sri Lanka stands firm on withdrawing from the process, said Admiral Colombage, claiming the former Defence Secretary’s victory at the 2019 Presidential election was seen as “a democratic mandate given by the people of Sri Lanka to revisit the co-sponsoring of the resolution”.
The Core Group is pressing ahead with a new resolution “with or without the Sri Lankan Government”, civil society sources said. But cooperating with them on this matter was seen as “politically untenable” because of the Government’s declared policy.
“It seems unpalatable to work with the Core Group and given commitments on accountability mechanisms, etc,” one source pointed out. It would also seem that excessive negotiation is required to reach the point of consensus resolution.
Admiral Colombage indicated that this had not been discussed yet. The sessions are due to start at the end of this month. The Core Group is not in agreement with Sri Lanka’s request for closure on 30/1 and successor resolutions, to wrap up engagement with Geneva. Countries like Britain and Canada, political analysts said, were under considerable pressure from the Tamil diaspora which has kept up the lobbying of foreign Governments.
In a latest missive on Friday, Tamil political parties represented in Parliament — the Tamil National Alliance, the Tamil National People’s Front and the Tamil Makkal Tesiya Kootani — together with local Tamil civil society organisations wrote to the missions of 47 member States represented in the UNHRC, calling for a resolution that declared Sri Lanka had “failed in its obligations to investigate allegations of violations committed during the armed ethnic conflict and atrocity crimes including genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes”.
It wanted the resolution to acknowledge that “there is no prospect for accountability in Sri Lanka by way of its own domestic mechanisms or through hybrid mechanisms”. It requested member States to urge in the new resolution that other UN organs, including the UN Security Council and the UN General Assembly, take up and refer the matter to the International Criminal Court and “any other appropriate or effective international accountability mechanisms”.
Britain has “long supported efforts at the UNHRC to deliver truth, accountability and transitional justice for all the victims of the conflict in Sri Lanka and to improve human rights in the country, including through UNHRC resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1”, a Spokesman for the British High Commission in Colombo said. “We continue to believe that the UNHRC framework is the best way to establish truth and achieve justice and lasting reconciliation for all communities in Sri Lanka.”
In February, June and September 2020, the British Government set out its continued support for the UNHRC framework as well as its concerns about the human rights situation in statements delivered at the UNHRC on behalf of the Core Group on Sri Lanka.
“We will continue to engage with the Government of Sri Lanka to set out the importance we attach to justice, accountability and human rights,” the Spokesman asserted. “Ahead of the March 2021 session of the UNHRC, we will continue to work with our international partners and with the HRC on how best to take forward this longstanding priority for the UK.”