{"id":11061,"date":"2012-09-26T20:29:28","date_gmt":"2012-09-27T00:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=11061"},"modified":"2012-09-26T20:31:06","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T00:31:06","slug":"two-actions-amounting-to-minimum-demonstrations-of-good-faith-required-from-sri-lankan-govt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=11061","title":{"rendered":"Two Actions Amounting to Minimum Demonstrations of Good Faith Required from Sri Lankan Govt"},"content":{"rendered":"

by International Crisis Group<\/strong><\/p>\n

W<\/strong>ith the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) meeting again this month in Geneva, Crisis Group took the opportunity to write to council members with an update on\u00a0the Sri Lankan government\u2019s continued failure to address its grave human rights problems.<\/p>\n

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Opening of 21st Session of Human Rights Council, 10 September 2012. Photo: UN Photo<\/p><\/div>\n

Six month\u2019s after the HRC\u2019s important resolution on Sri Lanka, the government still has taken no concrete action to address the host of issues noted by the council. The following\u00a0briefing, shared with HRC member states, analyses serious weaknesses in the Sri Lankan government\u2019s recent \u201cNational Action Plan\u201d to implement the recommendations of its own \u201cLessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The briefing also puts the \u201caction plan\u201d in the context of Sri Lanka\u2019s continued human rights violations and crisis in the rule of law. It urges members of the council at this session, at the \u00a0Universal Periodic Review in early November, and at the HRC session next March to press the government of Sri Lanka for real reforms.<\/p>\n

1. Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the six months since the Human Rights Council\u2019s March 2012 resolution on \u201cPromoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka\u201d, the government of Sri Lanka has taken no meaningful steps to implement the resolution\u2019s core requirements or otherwise address the country\u2019s culture of impunity and deepening crisis of the rule of law. The publication of a\u201cnational action plan\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to implement the recommendations of the\u00a0Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC)<\/a>\u00a0does nothing the change this: the government continues to resist launching any independent investigations into alleged war crimes or other serious human rights violations and has done nothing to establish independent institutions able to hold accountable state agencies, the military, or president Rajapaksa and his family.<\/p>\n

The past six months have also seen more murders and disappearances of political critics and proposals for new restrictions on political reporting on the internet. Despite a flurry of government claims to have reduced the role of the military in the Tamil-majority north and east, reports from the ground confirm that military control over development, the civil administration and the population at large \u2013 analysed in\u00a0Crisis Group\u2019s two March 2012 reports on the northern province<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 remains intact. The government still refuses to restart negotiations with Tamil political leaders or hold elections to the long-promised northern provincial council. These policies are increasing frustration among Tamils and weakening support for the moderate, pro-engagement approach of the main Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).<\/p>\n

Member states of the Human Rights Council need to demand action, not action plans<\/strong>. During the current HRC session, at the Universal Periodic Review in November, and in the run up to its March 2013 session, Council members should in particular:<\/p>\n

a) press the Sri Lankan government to establish truly independent bodies to investigate the many allegations of war crimes and other serious human rights violations committed during the civil war and in the three years since;<\/p>\n

b) insist, as recommended by the LLRC, that the government separate the police from the ministry of defence, remove the Attorney General\u2019s office from the control of the presidential secretariat, and re-establish independent commissions on police, human rights, judicial services and other important issues;<\/p>\n

c) press for real, not cosmetic, demilitarisation of the north and a speedy return to elected, civil, authority, reforms that are essential to lasting peace and any eventual political settlement;<\/p>\n

d) insist that the Sri Lankan government allow visits from the UN working group on enforced and involuntary disappearances and relevant UN special rapporteurs, including on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and on freedom of expression. These should come in advance of any country visit by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.<\/p>\n

2. Implementing the HRC resolution and LLRC report: A National (In)action Plan<\/strong><\/p>\n

The HRC resolution requested the government to present a \u201ccomprehensive action plan detailing the steps that the Government has taken and will take to implement the recommendations made in the Commission\u2019s [LLRC] report, and also to address alleged violations of international law\u201d. Unfortunately,\u00a0the government\u2019s \u201cnational action plan\u201d to implement the LLRC\u2019s recommendations, released in late July, rejects the LLRC\u2019s central findings on the need for independent investigations and the need to re-establish the independence of the judiciary, police and other important public bodies and processes. It also further weakens the LLRC\u2019s already flawed analysis of alleged war crimes, rejecting even its proposal for credible investigations into a very limited set of incidents. The action plan refuses to establish a single independent process or institution that might introduce even modest checks on presidential and military power, and often relies for its proposed investigations on the very bodies \u2013 the police and the military \u2013 accused of involvement in the crimes.<\/p>\n

For example:<\/p>\n