Geneva team

However, this compromise was arrived at after the initial damage was done. During the preliminary discussions in Geneva, Sri Lanka has already agreed to co-sponsor a resolution to seek an extension of timeline given to implement the Resolution 30/1 and 34/1. The Ministry of Foreign affairs confirmed that the new resolution has been sponsored together with Britain, Germany, Canada, Montenegro and Macedonia.

Infuriated, President Sirisena immediately announced that his team comprising Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Mahinda Samarasinghe and Suren Raghavan would be sent to Geneva, thus forcing Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to send Tilak Marapana to hold discussions to rename the Sri Lankan team for UNHRC. As it was obvious that there could not be separate teams from the President and the Prime Minister, Marapana sought a compromise. It was then agreed that the Foreign Minister would lead the team, as protocol demands, and it would include Amunugama and Raghavan. Mahinda Samarasinghe, who attended the UNHRC Sessions in the past declined to go this year. Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Ariyasinha, former Permanent Representative in Geneva too will be a member of the delegation.

Deviating from the earlier stance, Minister of Foreign Affairs acknowledged that the Government did not fully agree with the latest report of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNOHCHR) on Sri Lanka. Speaking in Parliament, he said Sri Lanka could not accept some of the points in the Report. The Report calls on the Sri Lankan Government to accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and establish a hybrid court to handle allegations of war crimes and human rights abuses. Marapana made this statement in reply to Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa’s demand that Sri Lanka should withdraw from the 30/1 UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution which Sri Lanka co-sponsored in 2015.

Opposition Leader

The former President said reiterating the stance he held since 2009, the President and the Premier have contradictory views on this matter. The new Resolution which is scheduled to be adopted binds Sri Lanka to continue the undertakings in the 2015 Resolution which was prepared based on false information in the Darusman Report. The Report before the UNHRC is an attempt at international intervention belittling the judicial system of Sri Lanka. Therefore, the Government should take suitable actions to stop it.”

President Sirisena too said in an interview last month, with a Sunday newspaper, that Sri Lanka should withdraw from the UNHRC resolution. He emphasised that Colombo was not prepared to invite foreign judges to sit in judgement regarding so-called human rights violations.

Foreign Minister’s response  

Marapana, in his speech in Parliament said, We do not agree with everything said in the OHCHR Report. For example, it says that the Government has not returned the North and East lands used by the military. That is not accurate. We have returned about 90 per cent of those lands to the original owners. There are several other things like that in this report. We would definitely raise our concerns about them during the session in Geneva.”

Furthermore, the new draft Resolution submitted to the UNHRC by Sri Lanka and other five nations is to get another two years’ time to complete the undertakings mentioned in the 30/1 UNHRC Resolution passed in 2015. This is a similar kind of situation where we adopted the 2017 UNHRC Resolution to extend the time until 2019. The wording of the Resolution is the same and the only difference is that the progress achieved during the past two years has been added into the resolution”, he added.

Opposition stance  

Opposition leader Mahinda Rajapaksa also pointed out that the Government should consider the true information and observations revealed by Lord Naseby of the British Parliament and withdraw from it. He pointed out that even the United States of America had withdrawn from the UNHRC claiming that it was politicised. Announcing the Trump’s decision to withdraw from UNHRC, the then American Ambassador Nikki Haley said, “I want to make it crystal clear that this step is not a retreat from human rights commitments,” Haley told the media. “On the contrary, we take this step because our commitment does not allow us to remain a part of a hypocritical and self-serving organisation that makes a mockery of human rights.”

There are many similarities in what the US stated and the words of Opposition Leader Rajapaksa, who said, based on the co-sponsored resolution in 2015, several laws detrimental to the sovereignty, national security, fundamental human rights of Sri Lankans and the security forces of Sri Lanka were being drafted in Parliament hiding behind human rights.” He said it is reported that the Resolution of the Human Rights Commissioner, to be presented at the 40th session, has proposed to set up a hybrid court in Sri Lanka on human rights violations, set up a UNHRC office in Sri Lanka and to continue the subject of human rights in Sri Lanka in the UNHRC agenda.

Steps to reconciliation

Many countries have acknowledged Sri Lanka has taken several steps towards speedy reconciliation. They include the return of some military-held civilian land, the establishment of an Office of Missing Persons and the ratification of the Convention on Enforced Disappearances. The Cabinet has recently approved the proposal to set us a truth seeking mechanism.

In the Western point of view, the priority issues that remain to be taken are meaningful devolution through Constitutional reforms and to establish credible mechanisms for transitional justice. However, from Sri Lanka’s point of view whatever the concept of justice in a post-conflict situation, it should be adopted only if it helps towards reconciliation. The proposal for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be viewed in that light. The Tamil people are well aware of the ruthless nature of the LTTE militants and they are reconciled to the fact that a similar method had to be followed to fight them. Today, the priority of the Tamil people is a right to livelihood and equal opportunities in addition to basic amenities.

Sri Lanka team headed by Tilak Marapana and comprising representatives from two different political forces, has the unenviable task of finding a consensual formula, in Geneva, that should be acceptable to all the Parties, the West and the Sri Lankan people of all shades of the divide.