{"id":117418,"date":"2021-08-23T16:57:58","date_gmt":"2021-08-23T23:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117418"},"modified":"2021-08-23T16:57:58","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T23:57:58","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-24b","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/23\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-24b\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 24b"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Yahapalana\ngovernment signed resolution 30\/1 in September 2015, and then it signed\nresolution 34\/1 in March 2017 and in November 2017 reiterated a “very\nfirm” commitment to fully implement the resolution within two years.  The commitment was made by the Head of\nDelegation to the HRC\u2019s Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Harsha de Silva,\nDeputy Minister of National Policies and Economic Affairs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But after the\nelectoral defeat of February 2018, Yahapalana changed its stance. At the Geneva\nmeeting of March 2018, Minister Tilak Marapana did not refer to the 2015 Geneva\nresolution at all. Tilak Marapana told\nHuman Rights Council all reconciliation mechanisms will be implemented in\naccordance with our Constitution”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Minister Sarath\nAmunugama, who was also in the delegation, said they had clearly explained to\nthe UNHRC that they would not allow any international interference which\nviolated the Constitution.” We have clearly told the HRC that the\ngovernment will not allow any foreign judges to come to Sri Lanka and interfere\nwith the local judicial system. Sri Lanka has enough lawyers and a completely\nindependent judiciary to look into its matters,” said Amunugama. It was\nunfair to categorize Sri Lanka as one of the countries that had to face war\ncrime charges, Sri Lanka defeated a very powerful terrorist organization.  Sri Lanka was very different to the other\ncountries which had war crime charges at UNHRC. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nintelligentsia are now getting restless over Resolution 30\/1.They are starting\nto probe the matter. Mahinda Samarasinghe was questioned. He stated that Sri\nLanka\u2019s decision to co-sponsor the Geneva Resolution 30\/1 in Oct 2015 had not\nbeen discussed by the Cabinet of Ministers,  the Foreign Ministry had handled the  matter. There was no requirement to take it up\nat the Cabinet, he said. The Rajapaksa\ngovernment had adopted a similar strategy in respect of the 2009 resolution. Tamara Kunanayagam said this was a very\nserious lapse on the part of government. The matter should have been first\nsubmitted to parliament to which the government is accountable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The media wanted\nto know from Samarasinghe whether the Naseby information had been conveyed to\nGeneva. Samarasinghe said the Naseby information has not been discussed at the\nCabinet. Lord Naseby during a meeting with President Sirisena in London had\nalso commented on Sri Lanka\u2019s failure to present its case in Geneva and to\nEuropean countries. Sarath Amunugama said that the Foreign Affairs Ministry\nshould have used the statement to deny allegations. .  However, Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana had\nassured Parliament in November 2017 that Lord Naseby\u2019s statement would be used\nat the appropriate time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nintelligentsia are now considering how to get out of this Resolution. Mahinda\nSamarasinghe said that Geneva Resolutions were not binding.  The Island<\/em>\npointed out that though the government had repeatedly claimed that Geneva\nResolution wasn\u2019t binding, it was in the process of implementing its\nrecommendations. Samarasinghe said that Sri Lanka would only implement what was\nacceptable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka should\naddress the issues relating to Geneva from a legal perspective and call on the\nHuman Rights Council to withdraw Resolution 30\/1 and re-visit the stand taken\nregarding Sri Lanka said one critic. It was possible for UNHRC to revisit a\nResolution. That decision was solely in\nthe hands of the members of the Human Rights Council. It would be up to the\nmember states of the Human Rights Council to decide whether to revisit Sri\nLanka\u2019s case on the basis of representations made by a country,   said an UN official.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only hope for\nSri Lanka is for a future government to sit with the Office of the Human Rights\nCouncil and renegotiate the resolution, so that Sri Lanka\u2019s obligations are\nfulfilled within the context of its own Constitution as well as within the\ninternationally recognized laws, said Ladduwahetty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether the fact\nthat the Sri Lankan government cosponsored the Resolution makes its\nimplementation obligatory is debatable, said N.A. de S Amaratunge. For one\nthing, the government may have been coerced by the western powers that helped\nthe government to come to power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the UN\nCharter, resolutions adopted by the General Assembly, including subsidiary\nbodies such as the Human Rights Council, are recommendations only and not legally\nbinding on Member States. Numerous resolutions are never ever implemented. The\nUS, for instance, has never implemented the annual resolutions calling for\nlifting of its criminal blockade against Cuba, nor has Israel the hundreds of\nresolutions on Occupied Palestine,  a\ncritic said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The simple\nsolution, therefore, is  ignore the\nresolution and mobilize the support of Sri Lanka\u2019s natural allies to take Sri\nLanka off the Council\u2019s agenda the critic said. This would mean ensuring there is no\nresolution against Sri Lanka or one that does not have an operative paragraph\nrequiring the Council to consider the matter at a future session. The\nresolution is binding only because Yahapalana wants it to be binding, concluded\nTamara Kunanayagam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This series ends\nwith reference to a new Human Rights issue facing Sri Lanka in Geneva, the\nemergence of the Muslim factor in the UN arena. This is clearly connected to\nthe Resolution At a side event at HRC sessions In Geneva, at which paper\npresenters and audience conducted themselves admirably, moderate yet critical\nrepresentatives of the Muslim community rationally presented their case, their\ngrievances and their apprehensions said Dayan Jayatilleke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tamara\nKunanayagam looked at it differently. Recent attacks on Muslims had helped\nadvance the UN-US agenda in respect of Sri Lanka. The attacks coincided with\nthe sessions of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Washington has been concerned that its\nresolution has been widely contested by the Sri Lankan people, including at the\nhighest level of State, said Tamara Kunanayagam speaking at \u2018Eliya\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The maiden\nappearance of the local Muslims at the HRC session in Geneva is on YouTube. We\nhave all seen it.  It is very clear that\nthese Muslim representatives have been brought in to   show\nthat Sri Lanka is simultaneously anti Muslim as well as anti Tamil. They have\nbeen brought for a purpose. The west finds that the case for Tamil Eelam is\nabout to be exposed and weakened at Geneva. That is due to the Global Sri Lanka\nForum, starting to invade   the HRC\nsessions In Geneva, well primed and ready to demolish the case for a bogus\nEelam. It was necessary   therefore to\nsubstitute another ethnic issue\u201d on to the stage and make Global Sri Lanka\nForum battle both ethnic issues.   ( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 KAMALIKA PIERIS Yahapalana government signed resolution 30\/1 in September 2015, and then it signed resolution 34\/1 in March 2017 and in November 2017 reiterated a “very firm” commitment to fully implement the resolution within two years.  The commitment was made by the Head of Delegation to the HRC\u2019s Universal Periodic Review in Geneva, Harsha […]<\/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-117418","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\/117418","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=117418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117418\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}