{"id":117446,"date":"2021-08-24T16:25:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T23:25:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=117446"},"modified":"2021-08-25T15:34:16","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T22:34:16","slug":"erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-24d","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2021\/08\/24\/erasing-the-eelam-victory-part-24d\/","title":{"rendered":"ERASING THE EELAM VICTORY Part 24d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

Sri Lankans have been given the impression\nthat Sri Lanka is under the HRC. That is incorrect. Sri Lanka\u2018s connection to\nthe UNHRC comes through Sri Lanka\u2018s membership of the UN. Sri Lanka became a\nmember state of the UN in 1955 and since then is entitled to participate in all\nGeneral Assembly deliberations and exercise a vote. Sri Lanka is also supported\nby the UN Charter, a much forgotten document, which when invoked, ranks above\nall other UN utterances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Human Rights Council was created by the\nUN General Assembly on 15 March 2006 to address human rights violations and\nmake recommendations.  It is therefore a\nsubordinate body of the UN. It is not even one of the principal UN\norganizations. The principal organizations of the UN are General Assembly,\nSecurity Council, ECOSOC, Trusteeship, and International Court of Justice.\nUNHRC is not one of the UN specialized agencies either, like WHO and ILO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the UNHRC was created, the UN General\nAssembly decided that the work and functioning of the new HRC should be\nreviewed five years after it had come into existence, and the review should\ntake place at the level of the General Assembly. At this review, the status of\nthe Council would also be considered.\u201d This shows that the UN General\nAssembly   has had its doubts about this\nnew Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first review of the UHRC accordingly took\nplace in 2011. The decision is listed as Resolution 65\/281 of 17.6.2011. The\nGeneral Assembly decided to maintain the status of the Human Rights Council\nas  a subsidiary body of the General\nAssembly and to consider again the question of whether to maintain this status,\nat a time  no sooner than ten years and\nno later than fifteen years. Therefore the HRC itself is up for periodic\nreview! Sri Lanka   indirectly\nparticipated in the review as a member of the General Assembly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government of Sri Lanka under Mahinda\nRajapaksa behaved as though it was scared of UNHRC. Sri Lanka has been taking a\ndefensive strategy from the first UNHRC resolution on accountability in 2012,\nalways explaining its actions during and after the conflict. This is a flawed\nstrategy, observed analysts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, Sri Lanka should\nconsider reporting the UNHCR and its Office of the Commissioner for Human\nRights to the General Assembly for \nexceeding its mandate.  Sri Lanka should call for a review of HRC\nin 2021 when the  next ten year period\nends. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka must\nbegin by reporting UNHCR to UNGA for interference in Sri Lanka\u2019s internal matters.\nUNGA Resolution A\/RES\/36\/103\nof 9 December 1981 says No State or group of States has the\nright to intervene or interfere in any form or for any reason whatsoever in the\ninternal and external affairs of other States.\u201d The   Eelam war was a secessionist civil war, which stayed within\nthe island. It did not spill out to other countries. It was an internal matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, the responsibility of protecting\nHuman rights and enforcing international human rights law lies with the state,\nnot the HRC. There is currently no international court   for judging  \ninternational human rights law. Many human rights are problematical.\nThere is no agreement on what they mean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The UN\nGeneral Assembly must be told of the dishonest methods used by the HRC,\nunder the guise of Human Rights, to push the Eelam agenda.  HRC has used for this purpose, contrived,\nbiased reports (Darusman and OISL) crackpot documentaries, (Channel Four)    extreme observations (UNHRC   Special Rapporteurs) and evaluations by the\nOHCHR itself. The faulty Darusman report was used as a primary source by the OCHRC. The OISL Report is \u2018rather unique\u2019 and was the\nfirst of its kind by his Office in respect of any country said the  High Commissioner.  It was\na new exercise, done for the first time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka will have support for this in the\nUN. When the 2014 resolution on Sri Lanka came up for discussion, the\nrepresentative for Pakistan had said that that no self respecting country would\nagree to the intrusive measures advocated in this resolution. He wanted to know\nhow this resolution was to be funded and whether the funders were the same as\nthose who had sponsored the resolution. \nIf so the whole process will be tainted. He got no   answer to his inquiry.  India had also warned that an intrusive approach\nwould undermine national sovereignty. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Russian Ambassador to Sri Lanka    said in 2018, ” We are strongly\ncondemning the use of human rights issues as an excuse for interfering in\ndomestic affairs of countries as well as undermining the basic principles of\nInternational Law. We oppose the adoption of the politicized country-specific\nresolutions, especially taking into account the successful functioning of the\nUniversal Periodic Review mechanisms in the Human Rights Council. The adoption\nof country-specific resolutions has only one goal to punish unfavorable\ngovernments. This is utterly counterproductive because the patronizing tone has\nnever contributed to improvements in the human rights situation and labeling\ncountries on the basis of political motives discredit the United Nations\nagencies” ( Daily Mirror, April 2, 2018 quoted by Ladduwahetty). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I recall seeing a newspaper headline many\nyears ago, which said \u2018Sri Lanka to be roasted at HRC\u201d. That was intended to\nfrighten the public.  However UN HRC lacks\nthe power to act against countries. No resolution of the UNHCR can have direct\nlegal consequence except for the Office of the High Commissioner itself. It can\nonly make recommendations, observed Palitha Kohona.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This \u2018roasting\u2019 talk would have been with\nreference to Sri Lanka\u2019s appearance at the Universal Periodic Review .The UNHRC\nis empowered, through its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) to examine the HR\nstatus of all 193 UN Member States. I looked at some of these UPR reports some\ntime back and my recall is that not one member state ever admitted guilt. They\nhad explanations, excuses, and where necessary, there was outright rejection of\nthe charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Subhas Gujadhur and Toby Lamarque were asked\nto make an assessment of the numerous HRC Resolutions issued over the years.\nTheir report was published as The evolution and future direction of\nthe UN Human Rights Council\u2019s resolution system\u2019 (2015). <\/em>They found that most of the Resolutions were on   themes, not countries.  Resolutions relating to specific countries,\nwere a mere 7% of its total output, and confined to 12 situations, including\nSri Lanka.  They were mostly about\nIsrael. The 10 highest ranked countries for HR violations were not in this\nlist. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When one\nconsiders the scale of human rights violations that have taken place (and\ncontinue to take place) around the world since 2007, it is clear that, by only\naddressing fourteen situations, the Council is guilty of  neglecting its responsibilities, said the\nauthors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the resolutions have been brought by\ntwo actors, the USA and the European Union, said Gujadhur and Lamarque. Only\nthese two actors   have shown the\npolitical will and the necessary political power to do so. 56%\nof the resolutions looked at were\nby the EU or leading member states of the EU and 20% by USA. The Council\u2019s\nwillingness to address country-specific human rights violations is therefore\nheavily dependent on just two Western powers, the EU and the US. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

 UN\nWatch\u201d has commented angrily on the resolutions agaist Israel. UN Watch\u201d  is an NGOs affiliated to American\nJewish Committee<\/a>.   UN Watch\u201d complained in 2010 that   about 27 \none-sided resolutions against Israel  \nhave been adopted by the UN Human Rights Council.\u2019 They were one\nsided    and      indicated support for   Hamas and Hezbollah, said UN Watch\u201d. HRC\nonly examines the actions of one side and presumes those actions to be\nviolations, \u2018UN Watch\u2019 complained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018UN Watch\u2019   further observed that before the USA took\nover,   HRC had convened no less than six\nspecial sessions on Israel. Since the United States joined the body, however,\nonly two such sessions were called and there was a clear decrease in the number\nof country resolutions devoted to Israel.         ( continued)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMALIKA PIERIS Sri Lankans have been given the impression that Sri Lanka is under the HRC. That is incorrect. Sri Lanka\u2018s connection to the UNHRC comes through Sri Lanka\u2018s membership of the UN. Sri Lanka became a member state of the UN in 1955 and since then is entitled to participate in all General Assembly […]<\/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-117446","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\/117446","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=117446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}