The UN Human Rights Committee’s review of Sri Lanka’s adherence to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) commenced with tough questions by the experts on the committee earlier on Tuesday at the Palais Wilson in Geneva.
The experts went through the issue list, compiled by the committee and asked for further clarification from Sri Lanka.
One of the Committee's experts, Yuwi Iwasawa, a professor of international law, began with issues focused on the legal framework under which the covenant is implemented.
Iwasawa said the Committee was very concerned about Sri Lanka’s adherence to the treaty, asking the government to provide an explanation for reports which indicate that ex-cadres remain in detention and are subject to lengthy interrogations, while surveillance restricted their movements. He pointed out that this was contrary to Sri Lanka’s claim that 97% of approximately 12,000 former cadres had been rehabilitated and released.
Professor of human rights Cees Flinterman was the next Committee expert to question Sri Lanka on equality and violence against women.
Flinterman asked Sri Lanka to shed more light on reports that sexual violence against war widows has increased and the abuse of female ex-combatants continued.
Gerald Newman, professor of international, foreign, and comparative law at Harvard, examined issue 8 raised by the committee - counter terrorism measures employed by the government.
While pointing out that the committee deplored all abuses committed during the conflict, Newman questioned Sri Lanka how it could justify the continuation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act when it didn’t have a reason to do so, pointing out that the mere possibility of a terrorist threat did not justify for the measures employed by the PTA.
Newman said Sri Lanka did not keep the PTA in case there is a future re-emergence of the LTTE, but is continually used by the state, including to detain human rights defenders.
Dr Anja Seibert-Pohr, the chair of international law at the University of Goettingen, questioned the delegation on issue 9 on the list: the right to life.
Seibert-Pohr said there is prevalent information that extra-judicial killings and disappearances not only occurred in 2009 but have continued since then. She said there are allegations that people were abducted and taken by the Criminal Investigations Department, interrogated and tortured. The military is also involved in these enforced disappearances, commonly known as “White Van” abductions, she said, asking the delegation what steps had been taken to stop the abductions and what procedures and mechanisms were in place to prevent these incidents.
Dr Seibert-Pohr also requested statistics on disappearances. and whether perpetrators had been sanctioned, or victims and families compensated. The professor pointed out that the committee was aware of the presidential commission on disappearances but questioned whether it was competent.
Dr Seibert-Pohr asked Sri Lanka to provide the committee with statistics on deaths in prisons and results of investigation into such deaths, specifically highlighting the deaths of Tamil inmates in Vavuniya prison.
Yuval Shany, the chair in public international law at the law faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, raised the accountability issues with the Sri Lankan delegation.
Shany said that the issue was not only incidents in 2009, but chronic problems of law enforcements. He asked the delegation whether it was true that the findings of the inquiry into the killings of 17 Action Contre le Faim workers were never published and requested to know what the findings were. Shany also highlighted factual evidence gathered during investigations into the incidents of 2009, including facts gathered by the UN Panel of Experts and the Channel 4 documentaries. He asked why Sri Lanka called the factual findings of the PoE report “fundamentally flawed and biased”, and whether it had investigated the specific allegations of the shelling of Puthukudiyiruppu hospital.
With respect to the Channel 4 documentaries, Shany asked whether any steps were taken by an army court of inquiry into the evidence presented. including the shelling of “No Fire Zones”, extrajudicial executions and sexual assault.
Shany said the committee had not yet received any actual data on prosecutions that have resulted from investigations by the state.
He also asked the delegation whether Sri Lanka would reconsider its refusal to cooperate with the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka and questioned whether the government had taken any measures to deliver justice to the victims of war.
Sri Lanka responded to the issues raised and some of the questions by the committee.
The country’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ravinath Aryasinha was backed up by, what the committee chair described as a “substantial delegation”, including several legal experts and officials from Sri Lankan ministries.
Aryasinha said Sri Lanka is committed to all the rights outlined by the ICCPR and that the government restored the rights taken away by the LTTE, including establishing “civil administration” in large parts of the North-East.
The envoy compared the LTTE to Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, stating that Sri Lanka conducted a humanitarian operation to save almost 300,000 civilians and LTTE cadres and the end of the armed conflict.
He claimed Sri Lanka continually provided medical assistance and food to the civilians trapped by the fighting.
Aryasinha went on to defend Sri Lanka on the issues raised by the committee, including terming recent religious violence as “unfortunate incidents”, which may occur in a multi-religious state. He added that media pluralism is well established in the country and the state did not possess a monopoly on media.
The representative warned that the threat of the LTTE had not abated and the continued separatist tendencies exhibited, including by some politicians and activists in the north, justified the continued provision of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Sashikala Premaratne, assistant secretary to the defence ministry, in response to questions regarding the PTA, said that a number of LTTE cadres remained abroad, who had evaded capture and did not undergo the government’s rehabilitation programme. She said there was evidence to suggest that there are attempts by the LTTE to regroup and establish contacts on the ground. She highlighted several alleged incidents, which she blamed on the LTTE, including the assassination of an EPDP member in 2012 and the case of Gopi, who was shot with two other Tamils by Sri Lankan security forces.
Premaratne said the funding for LTTE activities came from Europe and this was the reason behind the government’s banning of diaspora groups as terrorist entities.
She argued that the government was justified in upholding the PTA, in light of this evidence, and pointed out that the US and India also maintained their bans on the LTTE, which she said was an acceptance of the organisation’s continued existence.
Another member of the Sri Lankan delegation, Eric Illayaparachchi refuted the allegations that Tamil female ex-cadres are vulnerable to sexual violence and urged the committee to share the details of the instances they have reports of.
He added that Sri Lanka takes all allegations seriously and maintains a zero-tolerance policy on the issue.
A further 13 issues will be raised by the Human Rights Committee from 10:00 CEST on Wednesday, with further opportunity for Sri Lanka to answer.
The experts went through the issue list, compiled by the committee and asked for further clarification from Sri Lanka.
One of the Committee's experts, Yuwi Iwasawa, a professor of international law, began with issues focused on the legal framework under which the covenant is implemented.
Iwasawa said the Committee was very concerned about Sri Lanka’s adherence to the treaty, asking the government to provide an explanation for reports which indicate that ex-cadres remain in detention and are subject to lengthy interrogations, while surveillance restricted their movements. He pointed out that this was contrary to Sri Lanka’s claim that 97% of approximately 12,000 former cadres had been rehabilitated and released.
Professor of human rights Cees Flinterman was the next Committee expert to question Sri Lanka on equality and violence against women.
Flinterman asked Sri Lanka to shed more light on reports that sexual violence against war widows has increased and the abuse of female ex-combatants continued.
Gerald Newman, professor of international, foreign, and comparative law at Harvard, examined issue 8 raised by the committee - counter terrorism measures employed by the government.
While pointing out that the committee deplored all abuses committed during the conflict, Newman questioned Sri Lanka how it could justify the continuation of the Prevention of Terrorism Act when it didn’t have a reason to do so, pointing out that the mere possibility of a terrorist threat did not justify for the measures employed by the PTA.
Newman said Sri Lanka did not keep the PTA in case there is a future re-emergence of the LTTE, but is continually used by the state, including to detain human rights defenders.
Dr Anja Seibert-Pohr, the chair of international law at the University of Goettingen, questioned the delegation on issue 9 on the list: the right to life.
Seibert-Pohr said there is prevalent information that extra-judicial killings and disappearances not only occurred in 2009 but have continued since then. She said there are allegations that people were abducted and taken by the Criminal Investigations Department, interrogated and tortured. The military is also involved in these enforced disappearances, commonly known as “White Van” abductions, she said, asking the delegation what steps had been taken to stop the abductions and what procedures and mechanisms were in place to prevent these incidents.
Dr Seibert-Pohr also requested statistics on disappearances. and whether perpetrators had been sanctioned, or victims and families compensated. The professor pointed out that the committee was aware of the presidential commission on disappearances but questioned whether it was competent.
Dr Seibert-Pohr asked Sri Lanka to provide the committee with statistics on deaths in prisons and results of investigation into such deaths, specifically highlighting the deaths of Tamil inmates in Vavuniya prison.
Yuval Shany, the chair in public international law at the law faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, raised the accountability issues with the Sri Lankan delegation.
Shany said that the issue was not only incidents in 2009, but chronic problems of law enforcements. He asked the delegation whether it was true that the findings of the inquiry into the killings of 17 Action Contre le Faim workers were never published and requested to know what the findings were. Shany also highlighted factual evidence gathered during investigations into the incidents of 2009, including facts gathered by the UN Panel of Experts and the Channel 4 documentaries. He asked why Sri Lanka called the factual findings of the PoE report “fundamentally flawed and biased”, and whether it had investigated the specific allegations of the shelling of Puthukudiyiruppu hospital.
With respect to the Channel 4 documentaries, Shany asked whether any steps were taken by an army court of inquiry into the evidence presented. including the shelling of “No Fire Zones”, extrajudicial executions and sexual assault.
Shany said the committee had not yet received any actual data on prosecutions that have resulted from investigations by the state.
He also asked the delegation whether Sri Lanka would reconsider its refusal to cooperate with the OHCHR Investigation into Sri Lanka and questioned whether the government had taken any measures to deliver justice to the victims of war.
Sri Lanka responded to the issues raised and some of the questions by the committee.
The country’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ravinath Aryasinha was backed up by, what the committee chair described as a “substantial delegation”, including several legal experts and officials from Sri Lankan ministries.
Aryasinha said Sri Lanka is committed to all the rights outlined by the ICCPR and that the government restored the rights taken away by the LTTE, including establishing “civil administration” in large parts of the North-East.
The envoy compared the LTTE to Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, stating that Sri Lanka conducted a humanitarian operation to save almost 300,000 civilians and LTTE cadres and the end of the armed conflict.
He claimed Sri Lanka continually provided medical assistance and food to the civilians trapped by the fighting.
Aryasinha went on to defend Sri Lanka on the issues raised by the committee, including terming recent religious violence as “unfortunate incidents”, which may occur in a multi-religious state. He added that media pluralism is well established in the country and the state did not possess a monopoly on media.
The representative warned that the threat of the LTTE had not abated and the continued separatist tendencies exhibited, including by some politicians and activists in the north, justified the continued provision of the Prevention of Terrorism Act.
Sashikala Premaratne, assistant secretary to the defence ministry, in response to questions regarding the PTA, said that a number of LTTE cadres remained abroad, who had evaded capture and did not undergo the government’s rehabilitation programme. She said there was evidence to suggest that there are attempts by the LTTE to regroup and establish contacts on the ground. She highlighted several alleged incidents, which she blamed on the LTTE, including the assassination of an EPDP member in 2012 and the case of Gopi, who was shot with two other Tamils by Sri Lankan security forces.
Premaratne said the funding for LTTE activities came from Europe and this was the reason behind the government’s banning of diaspora groups as terrorist entities.
She argued that the government was justified in upholding the PTA, in light of this evidence, and pointed out that the US and India also maintained their bans on the LTTE, which she said was an acceptance of the organisation’s continued existence.
Another member of the Sri Lankan delegation, Eric Illayaparachchi refuted the allegations that Tamil female ex-cadres are vulnerable to sexual violence and urged the committee to share the details of the instances they have reports of.
He added that Sri Lanka takes all allegations seriously and maintains a zero-tolerance policy on the issue.
A further 13 issues will be raised by the Human Rights Committee from 10:00 CEST on Wednesday, with further opportunity for Sri Lanka to answer.