The accountability football for wartime atrocities and the delivery of justice for the war-affected has been kicked back to the Sri Lankan government despite repeated calls for international intervention.
Categorically rejecting international involvement in justice mechanisms, Sri Lanka has continued to maintain that it is competent to address unresolved issues domestically.
Presenting his oral update on the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has handed over the responsibility of rendering justice to the next government.
The island nation is to decide on its next president on 21 September.
The UN rights chief has handed over the task of delivering unfulfilled commitments to the President who will take over in a few days from now. His report to the 57th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva also reminds the incoming government that past governments have failed to honour the commitments given to the UN body.
“Sri Lanka is also approaching presidential and parliamentary elections later this year, and the newly elected administration must commit to the concrete transformational changes needed to ensure accountability, justice, and reconciliation”.
Successive chiefs of the UNHRC have called upon the government in power to ensure accountability and bring the perpetrators to justice, but have failed in their demand.
Volker Turk in his reports says Sri Lanka now stands at an important crossroads and must break from the past and chart a new course.
During the interactive dialogue on his office report on Sri Lanka, he reminded that successive governments have failed the war victims for a very long time.
“While 15 years have passed since the end of the devastating civil war – victims and their families are still waiting for truth, for justice and for reparation”.
However, his oral update did not explicitly call for any punitive action against those who are accused of serious human rights violations, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.
Outlining his ‘concerning trends’ over the past two years he highlighted the renewed threats to fundamental freedoms-including regressive laws and the erosion of democratic checks and balances, as well as harassment and intimidation of civil society and journalists.
The promises of a ‘new beginning’ made by the present President after the popular uprising ‘Aragalaya’ have largely ‘remained unfulfilled’.
“It shines a spotlight on recurring patterns of past violations, including arbitrary detention and torture, and underlines real risks for the future in the absence of deeper reforms”.
Commenting on the continuing culture of impunity, Volker Turk said that it impedes meaningful progress and encourages continued violations and more corruption.
“Without accountability, the legacy of violence is simply more violence. And impunity is a cancer that weakens States and societies,” he noted.
He called upon the present government to fully protect the rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful assembly prior, during and after the Presidential and the Parliament elections.
Adding further, the UN rights chief said his office continues to receive reports of persistent harassment, surveillance, and intimidation of journalists, civil society actors, victims, and human rights defenders, calling such things unacceptable.
While saying abuses by the police and security forces are prevalent, he said allegations of arbitrary detention and torture continue to be received by his office.
“The absence of accountability for past and present violations is a fundamental problem, illustrated by the lack of meaningful progress in emblematic cases”.
“And today, people allegedly responsible for gross violations continue to be appointed to senior positions”.
Volker Turk cited that such entrenched impunity has manifested itself in the corruption, abuse of power, and governance failures that were among the root causes of the country’s recent economic crisis.
Even as the Association for the Relatives of Enforced Disappearances led by Tamil mothers, wives and sisters continued searching for their loved ones for over 8 years, and with the Office for Missing Persons yet to trace even a single individual, although he shared his concern about this, he stopped short of suggesting any specific action like referring Sri Lanka to the International Criminal Court as demanded by the affected Tamil families.
“Their families are stuck in purgatory, waiting for answers – and those responsible have not been held to account. This must change, and that would start with a formal acknowledgement of the serious violations that occurred during the war, of the responsibility of the State and security forces for the conduct of their own personnel, and of the legacy of those atrocities for victims and communities”.
He warned that failure to deal with the past to ensure accountability for international crimes is renewing old conflicts, creating new conflicts and sowing seeds for future conflicts.
Without spelling out any concrete direct action plan to render justice to the war-affected Tamils, Volker Turk says the past must be closed, adding people and communities have experienced upheaval and distress for too long. “It is high time to bring closure to the past. To break a destructive cycle that leads to more violence and creates more victims”.
Turning to UN Member States, the High Commissioner for Human Rights urged to ‘continue to address the accountability gap in Sri Lanka’ by supporting the work by the UN Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR).
In 2021, OHCHR set up the Sri Lanka Accountability Project (SLAP) to gather evidence relating to violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka.
Responding to High Commissioner Turk in Geneva, Sri Lanka rejected the SLAP as it did not have the unanimous approval of the Council.
“In parallel with our economic recovery, the Government continues to take steps to heal past wounds and to address the residual issues affecting civilians from all communities arising from decades of conflict,” said Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva, Himalee Subhashini Arunathilaka.
“These initiatives include rehabilitating ex-combatants and child soldiers, demining and developing the North and East, providing reparations, resettling the internally displaced, releasing private land to original owners, offering livelihood assistance, and continuing inquiries into missing persons,” she added.
Arunathilaka informed the Council that the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), the Office for Overseas Sri Lankans, and the Interim Secretariat for the Truth and Reconciliation Mechanism (ISTRM) have been established as domestic mechanisms to promote national unity and reconciliation.
