Photograph: Tamil Guardian

As the United Nations Human Rights Council discusses a resolution to take forward the recommendations of the damming UN report into Sri Lanka’s atrocities, the chief minister of the Northern Provincial Council and former supreme court justice of Sri Lanka CV Wigneswaran called on the council to work for a resolution that fully adopted the recommendations of the High Commissioner for Human rights and allowed a victim centred transnational approach to the accountability and reconciliation  process.

In a guidance note addressed to drafters of the upcoming consensus resolution on Sri Lanka and to member states of the UN Human Rights Council, Mr Wigneswaran spoke on 5 themes that would need to be sufficiently addressed in any resolution adopted by the council to see a lasting peace, accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.

Extracts reproduced below:

Scope and Breadth of violations

As such, this Council strongly believes that Sri Lanka’s breach of the international obligations through the committing of international wrongful acts warrants the establishment of a mechanism, which draws the involvement of international judges and processes of high international standards to tackle ‘international crimes.'

The diverse nature of affected parties & offending individuals

It is vital to note that a significant proportion of its victims are scattered around the world including many thousands still languishing in refugee camps in India. Furthermore it must be noted that these diaspora victims played a vital role in providing evidence to the OISL investigation due to the non-co-operation of the previous Sri Lankan regime and systematic intimidation and threats potential survivors and witnesses to Human Rights violations were subjected to within Sri Lanka.

Therefore any mechanism for achieving accountability and justice require transnational arrangements via the United Nations, especially in the context of states which do not adhere to universal jurisdiction and/or enabling domestic legislation towards addressing ‘international crimes’, to request the surrender of suspects in third states.

The Time Frame in delivering accountability, justice and reconciliation

While we share the hopes and aspirations as all communities, as the community which was frequently at the receiving end of the political reversals within Sri Lanka we wish to strongly emphasize the need to impress upon Sri Lanka the need to adapt a time bound action plan towards accountability. Furthermore, we wish to emphasize while the new government and its stated pronouncements are a welcome development, our own collective memory, experience and the lessons from other contemporary examples such as Myanmar reinforce the need for the international community not to be complacent with regime changes as long entrenched structural causes of the protracted conflict of not disappear overnight and may in fact continue to impact well into the future.

The methods of achieving accountability justice and reconciliation,

“International community must bear greater responsibility towards implementing alternative mechanisms to expedite the process of accountability and justice by adopting context specific international principles and best practises including international judges and process of international standard.

Need for addressing the structural cause of the conflict

In  this  regard  the full  implementation  of the  13th  amendment  in  the  original  spirit and  word as  it  was intended  in  the  Indo-Lanka  accord  and  the  issues  highlighted  in  the  letter submitted  by  then  Tamil  United Front  Leaders  (TULF)  on 28 October  l9B7  to  the  Indian Prime  Minister,  is  a vital  first  step towards  evolving  a more comprehensive  and  meaningful devolution  through  constitutional reforms.

Need for Victim centred approach

  In  this  regard the recommendations  of UN Special  Rapporteur  on the  promotion  of truth, justice, reparation  and guarantees  of  non-recurrence  Pablo  de Greiff  on Sri Lanka  should  be adhered  to.  Such  mechanisms  should  be set  up with  the assistance  of the  International  Community preferably  through an internationally supervised process taking  into  account  that  many  victims are based  in  nations  outside  of  Sri Lanka.

Issue of Amnesty

In  this backdrop  taken  into consideration  the  gravity  of allegations  facing  the  perpetrators,  lessons  from  other international examples  and  the  Rome Statute  of  the  International  Criminal Court  we wish  to  strongly  advise against  any  moves  towards  affording  amnesty  to  those  who bear the  responsibility  for  violations which  fall  into  the  category  of  'international  Crimes'.  Furthermore  if  non-recurrence  of mass atrocities  and  the  creation  of a  new  human  rights  culture  is  of prime  motivation  it  is  vital  that the  cycle  of  impunity  is  brought  to  an end through  effective  prosecution  of  those  who are  accused of international  crimes'.  It is the least we could do to the Victims.