Writing in The Diplomat last week, Tamil Guardian editor Thusiyan Nandakumar described Tamil frustration at the latest United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka, which has “been widely panned by observers as the weakest on Sri Lanka since such measures on accountability were first introduced” at the global body.
“Last week, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted yet another resolution on accountability for mass atrocities committed in Sri Lanka. It was the latest in a long series of measures the global body has taken since the armed conflict reached its brutal climax in 2009. Then, tens of thousands of Tamils were massacred in what multiple U.N. reports have since recognized as systematic crimes.”
“The resolution, adopted without a vote, extends the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ war crime evidence-gathering project for another two years. There will be more reports and a continued focus on the island in the years to come. Sixteen years since the massacres at Mullivaikkal, Sri Lanka remains very much on the agenda in Geneva.”
“However, Tamil victims on the island and around the world are not celebrating. Instead, the resolution has been met with denunciations. There is a weary, familiar frustration that the world’s most powerful human rights body has once again failed to hold Sri Lanka’s war criminals to account, more than a decade and half later.”
Read the full text of his piece here.