{"id":151829,"date":"2025-09-06T16:14:59","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:14:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=151829"},"modified":"2025-09-06T16:14:59","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:14:59","slug":"why-sri-lanka-should-not-ratify-the-icc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2025\/09\/06\/why-sri-lanka-should-not-ratify-the-icc\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sri Lanka Should Not Ratify the ICC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Why Sri Lanka Should Not Ratify the ICC<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Sovereignty at Risk<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      External ICC jurisdiction would override Sri Lanka\u2019s Constitution, domestic courts, and national security decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Even functioning national mechanisms would be sidelined, undermining judicial independence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Politically Motivated Targeting<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      ICC disproportionately targets smaller or weaker states while ignoring powerful nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Sri Lanka\u2019s experience with UNHRC resolutions shows international mechanisms can be weaponized politically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Domestic Justice Exists<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Sri Lanka has laws and institutions to prosecute war crimes, terrorism, and human rights violations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      ICC ratification could duplicate or override domestic legal processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Military & National Security Risks<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Armed Forces could face unfair investigations for counter-terrorism operations (e.g., defeating the LTTE).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Morale and operational effectiveness could be compromised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. One-Sided ICC Actions \u2013 Examples<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

African Focus:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Sudan (Darfur), Kenya (post-election violence), Libya, Uganda \u2013 disproportionate scrutiny on African states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powerful Nations & their illegal invasions & occupations Omitted:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      U.S & NATO crimes.: Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria civilian casualties ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Libya (2011 NATO intervention):<\/strong> Civilian deaths and regime change facilitated by Western powers; ICC focus limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-State Actors Ignored:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      LTTE (Sri Lanka), Boko Haram (Nigeria), ISIS (Middle East), Taliban (Afghanistan) largely escape ICC scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reputational & Financial Pressure:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00b7      Investigations often lead to sanctions, loss of aid, or political isolation, irrespective of domestic judicial processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ratifying the ICC would compromise sovereignty, judicial independence, and national security. Sri Lanka has functioning domestic mechanisms and should not be subjected to politically-motivated international scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Powerful nations evade accountability while small states are targeted \u2014 ratification risks making Sri Lanka the next victim. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PUBLIC MESSAGE TO ALL SRI LANKANS: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sri Lanka must resist ICC ratification to protect sovereignty, military integrity, and national judicial authority. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human rights should be a shield for people \u2014 not a weapon against governments to weaken the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Weak governments should not think giving into western pressures will enable them to politically survive. They will be the first casualty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same players that carried out regime change in 2015 is said to have allegedly brought down that government with 2019 Easter Sunday massacre. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no friends in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Shenali D Waduge Why Sri Lanka Should Not Ratify the ICC 1. Sovereignty at Risk \u00b7      External ICC jurisdiction would override Sri Lanka\u2019s Constitution, domestic courts, and national security decisions. \u00b7      Even functioning national mechanisms would be sidelined, undermining judicial independence. 2. Politically Motivated Targeting \u00b7      ICC disproportionately targets smaller or weaker states while ignoring powerful nations. \u00b7      Sri […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shenali-waduge"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151829","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=151829"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151829\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151830,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151829\/revisions\/151830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}