ECONOMYNEXT – Human Rights Watch (HRW), an international a non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights has urged Sri Lanka’s new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake to cooperate with the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) investigations into the past human rights abuses and end the use of repressive laws in the island nation.
Sri Lanka has been facing allegations of human rights violations in the final stage of a 26-year war between Tamil Tiger rebels and the state military and a raft of other abuses since the end of conflict in 2009.
The UNHRC has passed resolutions to investigate the past rights abuses in Sri Lanka and collect evidence on such violations, though successive governments in the South Asian island nation have rejected cooperating with the global body, citing the move as infringing its sovereignty.
The HRW in a statement said the UNHRC should adopt a new resolution on Sri Lanka to enable continued UN monitoring, reporting, and evidence collection of rights violations for future prosecutions.
“President Anura Kumara Dissanayake…should reverse the policies of his predecessors by cooperating with the UN’s investigation mechanism, ending the use of repressive laws to stifle dissent, and preventing security forces from targeting activists, survivors of abuses, and victims’ families with threats and reprisals,” the HRW said.
In his latest report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has found that ill-treatment by police and security forces remain prevalent and said that the long overdue reforms have not occurred yet.
Volker also said impunity has also manifested itself in the corruption, abuse of power, and governance failures that were among the root causes of the country’s recent economic crisis.
CONTINUOUS FAILURE
“Successive Sri Lankan governments have failed to hold accountable officials implicated in horrific abuses, particularly against Tamils and Muslims, and President Dissanayake, who has pledged to end rights violations, can alter that history by ensuring justice and protecting victims and activists,” said Meenakshi Ganguly, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“The Human Rights Council resolutions are a crucial means of maintaining scrutiny on rights violations in Sri Lanka, offering some hope for justice, and a lifeline for victims who are otherwise at the mercy of abusive authorities.”
Sri Lanka has been long pressed by the West to address the past human rights abuses including alleged war crimes after the island nation’s domestic investigation commissions have failed to address the issue while successive Sri Lankan administrations have disregarded the recommendations by both local and international panels.
“This includes addressing grave violations of international human rights and humanitarian law, including war crimes committed by both government forces and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during the 1983-2009 civil war, as well as during a security forces crackdown on an insurrection in 1987-1989 by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the party Dissanayake now leads,” the HRW said in its statement.
Dissanayake’s JVP has spoken against past human rights violations including against ethnic minority Tamils. However, it is yet to commit to address such violations within an agreed framework as per UN resolutions.
The HRW also urged the Dissanayake government to review the Online Safety Act, adopted in January, which is perceived to contain broad powers to restrict freedom of expression, and reject proposed legislation curtailing non-government organizations.
Dissanayake has pledged to end corruption in his election campaign and the IMF last year said broad application of counter-terrorism rules in Sri Lanka restricts civil society scrutiny of official corruption.
Dissanayake has pledged to repeal the main counter-terrorism law, the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).
“The Human Rights Council should renew for two years the UN mandate for monitoring and reporting, and work on accountability for human rights violations and related crimes in Sri Lanka,” the HRW said.
The UNHRC passed a resolution in March 2021 that gave a mandate for the global body to establish a mechanism to gather evidence outside the country over alleged human rights violations during and after a 26-year war ended in 2009.
The resolution has allowed the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) “to collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve information and evidence and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka, to advocate for victims and survivors, and to support relevant judicial and other proceedings, including in Member States, with competent jurisdiction”
The resolution expired last month and Human Rights experts have said some countries including the United Kingdom have been planning for a new resolution at the ongoing UNHRC sessions to push Sri Lankan authorities to address the past human rights abuses. (Colombo/October 02/2024)