{"id":114064,"date":"2021-05-05T17:26:26","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T00:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=114064"},"modified":"2021-05-05T17:26:26","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T00:26:26","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-18d-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/05\/05\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-18d-pt-1\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 18D Pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 KAMALIKA PIERIS<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

When Pohottu\ncame to power in 2019 it informed the Human Rights Council of its decision to\nwithdraw Sri Lanka\u2019s  co-sponsorship\nof  UNHRC \nresolution 30\/1 and related resolutions 34\/1 and 30\/1.   A responsible government is obliged to\nwithdraw from such a Resolution, said Pohottu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The previous\ngovernment, a puppet government, in a manner unprecedented in Human Rights\nfora, joined as co-sponsors of Resolution 30\/1 which was against our own\ncountry. It carried a host of commitments that were not deliverable and were\nnot in conformity with the Constitution of Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For instance,\nthe Resolution called for hybrid courts with foreign\njudges. . Foreign judges can be appointed only after an amendment to the\nConstitution and a referendum\u201d. Further, the government\nhad not obtained Parliament approval before co sponsoring the Resolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pohottu was\nsupported by two clauses in Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (1969).\nArticle 45 warned that a state could not back out of an agreement if it had\nsupported it initially.  So Pohottu had\nto withdraw from the Resolution as soon as possible. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article 46\nprovided the justification for withdrawing. Article 46 states: A State may not\ninvoke the fact that its consent to be bound by a treaty has been expressed in\nviolation of a provision of its internal law regarding competence to conclude\ntreaties as invalidating its consent unless that violation was manifest and\nconcerned a rule of its internal law of fundamental importance\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Core\nGroup on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council , comprising Canada, Germany,\nNorth Macedonia, Montenegro and the UK, said they were deeply disappointed and\nconcerned\u201d that the Government of Sri Lanka has changed its approach to UNHRC\nResolution 30\/1.  They decided to go for\na fresh Resolution in 2021. The Sri Lanka government was invited to join,\nbut\nturned down the invitation to co-sponsor the resolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the UNHRC\nmeeting of March 2021, this Core group put forward Resolution A\/HRC\/46\/L.1\/Rev.1<\/a>  It was titled P<\/strong>romoting reconciliation, accountability and\nhuman rights in Sri Lanka.<\/strong>\u201d<\/strong> This\nResolution can be found at https:\/\/undocs.org\/A\/HRC\/46\/L.1\/Rev.1<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nResolution made it clear that it was the latest in a long line of UNHCR\nResolutions against Sri Lanka. The Resolution said it followed on the earlier\nresolutions, 19\/2 of 2012, 22\/1 of 2013, 25\/1of 2014, 30\/1of 2015, 34\/1 of 2017\nand 40\/1 of 2019.  The Resolution also\nremembered the joint communiqu\u00e9 of 26 May 2009 by the President of Sri Lanka\nand the UN Secretary-General. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Resolution\nasked the Office of the Commission of Human Rights  (OHCHR) to collect evidence on violation of\nhuman rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka, with a view to advancing\naccountability .This is the most important item in the Resolution. Thereafter,  the OHCHR was \nto present an oral update to the Human Rights Council, at its\nsessions  in September 2021. at its\nforty-eighth session, a written update at its forty-ninth session of March\n2022  and a comprehensive report at its\nfifty-first session in September 2022.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Office of\nthe High commissioner said that it was prepared   to do so. \u2018My Office stands ready to\ncontinue monitoring the human rights situation, including progress towards\naccountability and reconciliation\u2019, \nBachelet responded.  The High Commissioner\u2019s office was  given the authority to set up a special unit\nto gather this information and a budget of USD 2.8 million to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A new\nSecretariat will function under Human Rights High Commissioner Bachelet, Sunday\nTimes reported. The Office of the High Commissioner has already advertised\ncalling for applications for the identified new positions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This includes\nOne Senior Legal Advisor with experience in criminal justice and or criminal\ninvestigations and prosecutions to co-ordinate the team. He or she will be\nresponsible for collection strategy; the development of a central repository to\nconsolidate, preserve and analyse information and evidence; co-ordinate the\nprocesses of reviewing and sharing of information with national authorities for\nuniversal jurisdiction and extra territorial jurisdiction cases and other\naccountability purposes in line with relevant United Nations guidelines;\ndevelop accountability strategy and engage with accountability mechanisms\nincluding specialized investigators, prosecutors, judges, and other legal\npractitioners both for information sharing purposes, to promote accountability\nand advice on the development of accountability strategies; and liaise with\nother Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), other\nindependent mechanisms and other UN systems to ensure co-ordinated approach. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201dThere will\nbe two investigators or Human Rights Officers with a background of criminal law\nto research, collect and analyse information and documentation pertaining to serious\nhuman rights violations, and international criminal law matters. Others include\ntwo Legal Officers, two Analysts, Information and Evidence Officer, two Jurists\n\u2013 Linguists, a Victim Support Officer, and a programme Assistant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding\namounting to US$ 2,800,900 is required for the remaining part of this year for\nthis new team. Thereafter for 2022, a sum of US$ 2,064, 400 is estimated. This\nfund requirement is to be brought to the attention of the UN General Assembly\nwhen it meets for its 76th sessions in New York in September2021. It would have\nto be approved by the Fifth Committee which is charged with financial\nadministration of the UN system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Diplomatic\nsources said that Australia and Norway were ready to offer the funds should\nthere be opposition. But they were very confident\u201d such a situation would not\narise.  In any case, the move for a new\nSecretariat under the Human Rights High Commissioner will not be dropped. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The United\nKingdom together with  the core group \nare examining ways and means of pursuing issues related to future human\nrights violations,  said the media. Reports\nemerging from diplomatic consultations among the sponsor and core group of\ncountries show that many options were being discussed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 What happens if members of the new Secretariat\nunder the UN Human Rights Commissioner are not allowed to visit Sri Lanka?\nThere have been suggestions for those concerned to visit as tourists. There\nwill also be references to trophy footage and evidence on the violation of\nhumanitarian law. In the coming weeks, there will be especially important\nmeasures adopted by some core group members to take forward the resolution,\u201d\nsaid a western diplomatic source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\nof Sri Lanka   is also adopting measures\nto counter information gathering on future violations of human rights\u201d by this\nnew Secretariat at the OHCHR , continued the media..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seven Foreign\nTamil organizations have been proscribed through a Gazette notification. They\nare  based in the United Kingdom, Canada,\nAustralia, Germany, and France. The main group proscribed is the UK-based\nGlobal Tamil Forum (GTF) which, together with the Tamil National Alliance\n(TNA), has been at the helm of pushing through the Resolution on Sri Lanka. This\nis the second time such a proscription has been re-imposed after the withdrawal\nby the previous   Yahapalana government\nin 2016. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also named\nare 339 individuals who will not be allowed entry into Sri Lanka. Efforts are\nbeing made by Tamil groups to appeal to western governments  to counter this. This proscription means that\nany person who has any dealings with those named in the Gazette notification\nwould be treated as an offender. Such a person will be liable for arrest. The\nidea is to prevent them from transmitting any complaint or in helping in many\nother ways. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\ngovernment is also closely monitoring Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and\nInternational Non-Governmental Organisations (INGOs) which are  funded in US dollars. Remittances from\ndifferent sources are being identified. This again is to prevent, among other\nmatters, funds being used to gather information on alleged victims of human\nrights violations and fees for lawyers who produce affidavits. ( Continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 KAMALIKA PIERIS When Pohottu came to power in 2019 it informed the Human Rights Council of its decision to withdraw Sri Lanka\u2019s  co-sponsorship of  UNHRC  resolution 30\/1 and related resolutions 34\/1 and 30\/1.   A responsible government is obliged to withdraw from such a Resolution, said Pohottu. The previous government, a puppet government, in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-114064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamalika-pieris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114064\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}