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TGTE Urges UN Human Rights Council to Take Strong Action Against Sri Lanka Despite China’s Pledge to Protect Sri Lanka !
- October 28, 2020
- ENGLISH NEWS, TGTE PRESS RELEASES
China’s pledge to protect Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council raises serious concern among the victims whether they can get justice through the Council !
The Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE) condemns the pledge of Chinese diplomats during their meeting with the Sri Lankan government to defend Sri Lanka at “international fora including United Nations Human Rights Council”
China’s pledge is not a surprising one, however. When the 99-year lease agreement was signed between the Government of Sri Lanka and the Chinese state-owned company with respect to Hambantota Port in 2017 we expected such cooperation to result.
It has been more than 11 years and, in spite of three Reports from the UN in which it was stated that there are credible allegations of war crimes and crimes against Humanity were committed during and after the war which ended in 2009, thus far no one has been convicted, let alone prosecuted for these atrocities either domestically or internationally.
While the previous “good governance” regime used Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 which it co-sponsored as a sophisticated form of impunity, the current administration brazenly thumbs its nose at the international community and has explicitly stated it will not abide by the commitments made in Resolution 30/1. When the mandate of Resolution 30/1 expires in March 2021, the Human Rights Council (HRC) must pass a resolution referring Sri Lanka to the Security Council with a recommendation for referral to the International Criminal Court or for another strong international judicial mechanism.
“China’s pledge to protect Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council raises serious concern among the victims whether they can get justice through the Human Rights Council.”
— Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam (TGTE)
We recognize that when the matter is referred to the Security Council, there is a possibility to frustrate the HRC’s referral by the exercise of veto power. If that be the case, so be it. The hope is that that scenario will be a catalyst to an accountability process in various civilized countries through changes in domestic laws, prosecutions through universal jurisdiction and unilateral sanctions. As Mr. Aaron Rhodes, the president of the Forum for Religious Freedom – Europe and the former Executive Director of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights worte in The Wall Street Journal on October 19, 2020, it is high time that “Democracies that defend liberty [to] recover their unilateral sovereignty – politically and philosophically – if they want to promote the universality of human rights and defend the growing number of victims denied them.”
The pledge of China to protect Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council is reprehensible. Given the fact that China has been elected to the HRC last week, coupled with China’s oppression of the Uighurs, its clampdown in Hong Kong and its bellicose stance towards Taiwan, China’s pledge to protect Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council raises serious concern among the victims whether they can get justice through the Human Rights Council.
The TGTE believes that while we pursue justice at the Human Rights Council, we also have to embark on a course to bring the state of Sri Lanka before domestic forums of civilised countries for its crimes. The statutes of the International Criminal Court have been adopted internally in many countries through domestic legislation. Thus, individuals can be prosecuted for international crimes in those countries.
As the UN Office of the High Commissioner Investigation of Sri Lanka (OISL) report acknowledges, international crimes were committed by the Sri Lankan state itself, however. To place the state of Sri Lanka in domestic Tribunal in various countries the concept of sovereign immunity has remained an obstacle. Through domestic legislation this obstacle can be removed. If sovereign immunity is not a defence for commercial transactions, how can it be a defence for genocide? The recent “Walk for Justice” campaign in Canada, in which marchers carried a petition from Toronto to Ottawa requesting the Canadian Prime Minister’s support for the initiative to remove Sri Lanka’s sovereign immunity for international crimes, and the march’s coverage by the mainstream media regarding this endeavour gives us excitement and hope.
Twitter: @TGTE_PMO
TGTE.TV: https://tgte.tv/
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Email: pmo@tgte.org
Web: www.tgte-us.org and www.tgte.org
Transnational Government of Tamil Eelam
TGTE
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