The Sri Lankan delegation to the HRC 6th sessions in Geneva which began today 10th December 2007, met with groups of Ambassadors and diplomatic representatives at two working meetings at the Palais de Nations this morning and afternoon.
The Sri Lankan delegation comprised Ms. Shirani Goonatilleke Director Legal of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process Mr. Shavindra Fernando, Deputy Solicitor General, and Mr. Amarawardene, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights, and (Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha, Secretary General of SCOPP was expected to join the delegation later in the day.)
H.E. Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka presided at both meetings and Counsellors Mr. Sumedha Ekanayake and Mr. Ameerajwad were also present.
Ambassadors or their representatives from Japan, Ecuador, Nigeria, Thailand, Mexico, Djibouti, Jordan, Nicaragua, ROK, Brazil, China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh, India, Philippines and the Holy See were present.
The Diplomats were greatly appreciative of the opportunity to meet with the delegation in order to discuss current issues in Sri Lanka and to obtain first hand information. They also participated in a discussion on Sri Lanka’s position that a proposal from the UN Human Rights High Commissioner (HC), for OHCHR to establish a fully fledged presence of OHCHR in Sri Lanka, with a full mandate for public reporting – was misplaced.
The Sri Lankan delegation explained that the Government shared in the HC`s concern of a “deficit in independent, reliable and credible information on the situation of human rights in the country”.
The Government was of the view that national mechanisms to promote and protect the human rights of Sri Lanka`s citizens in the long-term will be best served by creating a “strong national protection system”. The Government had also suggested the strengthening of the advisory capacity of the UN Country team`s Senior Human Rights Advisor, in order to enable the Advisor to assist the national reporting structures to ensure credible, reliable and objective reporting that the HC had stressed as essential.
The Government was therefore mounting a concerted effort to re-establish a competent, community oriented police service, placing great emphasis on capacity building of the Police. This included language learning, recruitment of minorities and training in interrogation, investigation and prosecution as well as to enhance the capacity of other key agencies in the Criminal Justice System and the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka.
The delegation invited the Ambassadors to look at the issue of the perceived deficit in credible reporting highlighted by the OHCHR in the specific Sri Lankan context, which was one where actual acts of terrorism were commonplace and had been prevalent for the last 25 years. This they said was quite different to the post 9/11 scenario in many western jurisdictions where strong anti terrorism laws had been enacted in the face of “imminent terrorist threats” as preventive legislation.
The necessity to advance the capacity of the crucial focal points in the CJS was therefore obvious and could not be substituted by an OHCHR office.
The fact that Sri Lanka had by statute set up an independent National Human Rights Commission in 1994, with a requirement that it had to have representatives of all ethnic communities and the upholding of fundamental human rights by a strong Supreme Court were also cited as examples of the independence and strength of national institutions in the country.
Building confidence in these institutions and giving legitimacy to them in the eyes of all Sri Lankans, was seen as a priority by Government which placed great emphasis in open and constructive engagement with the international community and the UN bodies including the OHCHR.
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Violations Committed
by the GOSL - 351
