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Double means quits: Lanka loses top post

From Neville de Silva in London
Bungling by the government has cost Sri Lanka the post of a rapporteur in the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The chairperson of the Commission, Libyan Ambassador Najada al Hajjaji, announced in Geneva last week the appointment of Leandro Despouy, an Argentine diplomat specialising in human rights, to the post of Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers, bypassing, among others, two candidates nominated by Sri Lanka, diplomatic sources in Geneva told The Sunday Times.

The confusion caused by Sri Lanka in submitting two names -- that of former International Bar Association (IBA) president Desmond Fernando PC and one-time Secretary to the Justice Ministry Nihal Jayawickrama put paid to any chances for a Sri Lankan candidate, the sources said.

The Foreign Ministry nominated Dr Jayawickrama whose name was submitted to the UN Commission through Sri Lanka's ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Prasad Kariyawasam, without consultation with either the local Bar Association or the Cabinet.

That was in September last year, shortly after it was known that the current holder of the special rapporteur's post Param Coomaraswamy of Malaysia who has served nine years would relinquish the position.

The Sri Lanka government in an unprecedented move then sent a second nomination, without cancelling the first nominee, after the IBA, the cabinet and the Sri Lanka Bar Association decided to back the nomination of Desmond Fernando PC.

Other countries which had scrupulously avoided putting up candidates to adhere to the choice by consensus, later nominated candidates because of the foul up by the Sri Lanka government, the sources said.

Candidates from Hungary, Argentina, Colombia, the US, Ireland, India and Western Europe were among those who then threw their names into the ring.

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