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Bachelet report emerges as UNHRC Resolution
A “zero” draft Resolution on Sri Lanka by the United Kingdom and others in the core group draws heavily from the Report of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner Michele Bachelet.
In Colombo, diplomatic sources said the core group hopes to finalise the Resolution during the weekend. If that happens, the agreed text would be handed over to the Human Rights Council Secretariat in Geneva on Monday (tomorrow), these sources said.
One of the key operative provisions says the Council “recognises the importance of preserving and analysing evidence relating to violations and abuses of human rights in Sri Lanka with a view to advancing accountability and decides to strengthen the capacity of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to consolidate, analyse and preserve information and evidence and develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law, to advocate for victims and survivors, and to support relevant judicial proceedings in Member States with competent jurisdiction.”
The core group comprises the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Montenegro, Northern Macedonia, and Malawi.
The gravamen of the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s Report has been encapsulated in an operative paragraph which reads that the UNHRC “expresses serious concerns over emerging trends over the past year, which represent clearly early warning signs of a deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, including the accelerating militarization of civilian government functions, erosion of the independence of the judiciary and key institutions responsible for the promotion and protection of human rights, ongoing impunity and political obstruction of accountability for crimes and human rights violations in “emblematic cases,” policies that adversely affect the right to freedom of religions or belief, surveillance and intimidation of civil society and shrinking democratic space, arbitrary detention, allegations of torture and other cruel, inhuman, degrading treatment or punishment and sexual and gender based violence, and that these trends threaten to reverse the limited but important gains made in recent years and with the recurrence of policies and practices that gave rise to the grave violation of the past.”
Among the other highlights:
* Expresses further concern that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted on freedom of religion or belief and exacerbated the prevailing marginalization and discrimination suffered by the Muslim community, and that the Government of Sri Lanka’s decision to mandate cremations for all those deceased from COVID-19 has prevented Muslims and members of other religions from practising their own burial religious rites, and has disproportionately affected religious minorities and exacerbated distress and tensions.
* Stresses the importance of comprehensive accountability process for all violations and abuses of human rights committed in Sri Lanka, including those by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, as highlighted in the OISL(OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka) report of September 2015. (Note: It is not clear how the LTTE could be made answerable)
* Taking note of the passage and operationalization of the twentieth amendment to the constitution of Sri Lanka while stressing the importance of democratic governance and independent oversight of key institutions, and also encouraging the Government to respect local governance including holding of elections for provincial councils, and ensure that all provincial councils are able to operate effectively in accordance with the thirteenth amendment to the constitution of Sri Lankan
* Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to enhance its monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, including progress on reconciliation and accountability, and to present a written update to the Human Rights Council at its forty-ninth session, and comprehensive report including further options for advancing accountability at its fifty-fifth session, both to be discussed in interacive dialogues. (Note: this diminishes Sri Lanka’s hopes that the issue would be closed).
ALSO SEE POLITICAL COMMENTARY ON PAGES 10 AND 11