The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the Commonwealth body responsible for dealing with serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth values, came under scrutiny over its handling of Sri Lanka during a press conference following its 43rd meeting in London on Friday.

The press conference, which hosted a panel consisting of foreign ministers from Tanzania, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Cyprus, Guyana and India, began with the Commonwealth’s Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma read a statement adopted at the meeting, welcoming progress in Fiji towards holding national elections, further stating:

“In recognition of progress, CMAG decided that Fiji’s current full suspension from the Commonwealth should be changed to suspension from the Councils of the Commonwealth, thus permitting Fiji once again to participate in a range of Commonwealth activities, including the Commonwealth Games.”

At the press conference, Jonathan Miller of Channel 4 News asked the Secretary General why Sri Lanka had not been on the agenda, saying:

“My understanding of CMAG and this meeting that took place today is that it meets to deal with serious and persistent violations of Commonwealth values. In that respect, Sri Lanka, which chairs the Commonwealth, is accused of serious and persistent violations of these very values and has recently rejected in its entirety a report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which was highly critical of Sri Lanka’s human rights performance. Why was Sri Lanka not on the agenda of the CMAG meeting today?”

Kamalesh Sharma responded that he was engaging in his good offices with Sri Lanka, and said:

“CMAG has empowered and encouraged the Secretary-General to engage in his good offices with Sri Lanka, which is what I have been doing. We agreed on a roadmap of Commonwealth partnership with Sri Lanka when I visited Sri Lanka last year. There are about 10 different tracks and the progress is there for all to see on our website.

We are advancing at a different pace on each track. We are tackling difficult issues, such as reconciliation, torture and human rights. We are working in a Commonwealth way. We offer practical assistance and a helping hand and we strengthen national endeavour in the field of human rights and the rule of law.

This week, we have started discussion about new areas of work and my work, at the insistence of the CMAG, includes reconciliation; elections; strengthening of the Human Rights Commission; enquiry of various types encouraging the human rights body, which we are doing right now in Geneva with the full body; the separation of powers issue, public administration and freedom of expression.

It is the intent of the CMAG that in the spirit of the Commonwealth we must engage with member states in order to advance the values which the CMAG is particularly cognisant of and this is what I am doing. I had the pleasure of briefing the CMAG ministers of the work that I am doing and I was encouraged further to continue this work.”

Tamil Guardian questioned Sharma about the Commonwealth’s attitude towards UN reports on Sri Lanka, asking:

“When the Commonwealth is usually so keen to work with the UN, how do you reconcile that with the complete discord it has shown with Navi Pillay’s reports and efforts with regard to human rights in Sri Lanka?”

The Secretary-General responded by differentiating between the bodies of the UN in Geneva and the Commonwealth in London. He further replied:

“As I said in my response to the earlier question, the observation that the Commonwealth is not doing enough is completely misplaced. As I said, we have ten tracks that we are developing. We are not trying to avoid the harder issues, but we always work in a spirit of constructive engagement with member states because all durable and lasting advance in the field of human rights and the rule of law has to be based on national accomplishment and consolidating it nationally, which is why we work so closely with the human rights institution in Sri Lanka in advancing this.

As for your reference to Geneva-- that is the United Nations, that is Geneva; this is the Commonwealth; this is London. We work here in the Commonwealth in a constructive spirit of engagement, with a helping hand, in which our leaders have encouraged us.”

Callum Macrae, Director of No Fire Zone, reminded Sharma that he had claimed to be engaging with Sri Lanka in his good offices a year previously, and said:

“Last year, you said at this press conference that you were engaging in your good offices, and that they were progressing. Now there is supposed to be a limit on the time for which good offices go on, and I understand that limit is long-passed, actually, and that at the end of that you were supposed to recommend some form of action. Now you are telling us again that you are still doing the good offices, and I am just wondering how that continuing effort stands beside what the UN has been saying, which is that things are not getting better, but getting worse.”

The Secretary-General responded:

“In engaging good faith with member states, there is no cut of point as far as our engagement in member states is concerned in respect of my good offices. If you look at the history of good offices of the Secretary-General, it is because the Secretary-General is engaged in a difficult terrain that you have to draw a very deep breath when you do good offices.

Of course, my expectation is always that quick progress will be made, which is why I said in my opening statement that progress is uneven. We always try and see through persuasion and through collaboration that this progress is achieved. But I would not say that the progress is not being achieved. You will find that in the nature of the work, the pace at which you can progress that work will vary all the time; it will be different.

You cannot have an artificial cut-off point for your good offices. Very often you find that it is taking a long time to pursue the ends through good offices that you want, but we never give up, we stay the course and we do get the result that we want. Looking back, the lesson that we have learnt is to do it in good faith, do it sincerely and do it with some stamina, shown by the Secretary-General and the Secretariat. Because in the end, if the way is to create national capacity and to have them overcome the difficulties that are very often very difficult and intractable, you need the time to play that out.

So we never say at any one point of time that we have seen enough of time. We always work towards the end that serves our values, and we are prepared to draw a very deep breath. But of course, I must emphasise again that this is not the same as saying we are sanguine about it. Not at all. We always try and introduce some velocity and some momentum in the work that we are doing.”

Macrae also addressed Sri Lanka’s External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris about the arrest of Tamil activist Jeyakumari in Vanni, saying:

“In light of the Commonwealth’s commitment to association and freedom of expression, and your responsibility to encourage and promote those core values, I wonder if you’d like to comment on the fact that last night one of the leading campaigners for the disappeared in Sri Lanka, a mother and her 14 years old daughter were arrested?”

Peiris responded:

“It is a great pity that all of the progress accomplished in our country during the last four years, at the end of a devastating conflict that spanned three decades, all of that is ignored. Very difficult challenges, and everything that has happened on the ground with regard to internally displaced people being resettled; ex-combatants reintegrated into society; look at the economy of the North, how it is developing; the holding of elections in the northern province after quarter of a century. All of this is ignored, and it is a great pity that your assessment is totally lacking in fairness and a sense of balance. Of course law and order issues are a different matter; we have to look at the evidence, the reasons why action has been taken in a particular case, but the trajectory forward, all the progress, is by any reasonable standard pretty substantial. Regarding the people arrested yesterday, we have to examine the evidence, the grounds on which it is done; that will happen in due course, against judicial scrutiny. I think it is very wrong to come to a conclusion before the facts are looked at objectively and in depth.”

Jonathan Miller pressed the Minister on Sri Lanka’s announcement of investigating witnesses in Channel 4 footage and said:

“You said that for the past year investigation has been in train into potential witnesses involved in footage that my programme, Channel 4 News, broadcast in 2009, which purported to show the summary execution of bound, naked, blindfolded prisoners by Sri Lankan security forces. This has been validated as authentic by the United Nations experts. You are now saying that you are investigating this, but for the past four or five years your government has insisted that this footage is a fake. Could you just explain why you have gone to the effort to identify potential witnesses if indeed this footage is, as you say, a fake?”

Peiris’s response was:

“We are prepared to look at anything fairly and objectively. But just as you say that your material is authentic, there were very compelling grounds for us to come to the conclusion that this was a fake; that it had been done entirely for political reasons.

I must also mention that this kind of material has a habit of surfacing at a politically critical moment; on the eve of something that is happening that is significant for Sri Lanka. In our own minds we have no doubt that this is an orchestrated political campaign, but if there is new material that you wish to submit, we will always be willing, with an open mind, to look at it.”

See here for full transcript of press conference.