இன்று (பங்குனி 5) ஜெனீவாவில்

மனித உரிமைகள் காப்பகம் தனது முழுமையான நேரத்தை இலங்கை சம்பந்தமாகவே பேசியது

Human Rights Watch (HRW) made a strong statement entirely on Sri Lanka today March 5th 2012 at the UN Human Rights Council General Debate (15th Meeting)

Video link :

http://www.unmultime...ts-council.html

Full text of the HRW statement below

Item 2: General Debate with the High Commissioner

Thank you Madame President,

In her statement, the High Commissioner noted that the report of the Sri Lanka Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission falls short of the comprehensive accountability process recommended by the Secretary-General's Panel of Experts and encouraged the Council to consider the matter.

Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, addressing the 19th session of the HRC on February 27, recited a laundry list of steps the government of Sri Lanka says it is taking to address accountability and reconciliation. What he failed to mention was that many of these measures were set up in haste on the eve of a possible resolution on Sri Lanka at the Council. As such, they represent little more than cosmetic gestures intended to avoid international action to promote accountability in the country. The recently announced army court of inquiry, for instance, had its members picked by Gen. Jagath Jayasuriya, head of security forces in the conflict's main battle zone. An inquiry appointed by the commander who oversaw and was a colleague of senior officers who might themselves have been implicated in serious abuses cannot possibly be expected to be an independent and impartial finder of fact.

As Human Rights Watch and others have frequently pointed out, the Sri Lankan government has a long history of failed promises to provide accountability for serious human rights abuses. Instead of investigating credible claims, the government has consistently rejected them out of hand and questioned the motives of those who make them, whether it is the UN Secretary General, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, concerned governments, the media, or human rights organizations. There is thus little reason to believe that these most recent government gestures will be any more meaningful than previous ones.

Human Rights Watch notes that the Sri Lankan government's claims of progress on human rights flies in the face of realities on the ground. Civil society, human rights defenders and journalists critical of the government continue to operate in a climate of fear and repression. On December 9, 2011, two political activists, Lalith Weeraraj and Kugan Murugunandan, were abducted in Jaffna while preparing to participate in Human Rights Day celebrations. On February 11, 2012, a complainant in a fundamental rights case, Ramasamy Prabhaharan, was abducted in Colombo two days before his case against the police was due to be heard. Human rights defenders and journalists who have alleged international contacts are often accused of being Tamil Tiger supporters - a very dangerous accusation in Sri Lanka.

Fears felt by civil society groups extend beyond Sri Lanka. In September 2011, activist Sunanda Deshapriya was sharply criticized in the state media for his attendance at an informal meeting during the HRC sessions in Geneva. In such a climate, several Sri Lankan human rights groups and victims of abuses who had planned to travel to Geneva for the HRC sessions have decided not to attend out of fear.

Human Rights Watch recently documented the torture of several ethnic Tamil asylum seekers who had been returned to Sri Lanka. Contrary to the hopes of many, the end of the long armed conflict has not brought an end to abuses against ethnic minorities. Human Rights Watch has also received credible information that Tamil communities in Jaffna and elsewhere were forced to participate in the government-staged protests over the possible HRC resolution.

முன்னாள் சட்டமா அதிபர் மொஹான் பீரிஸ் ஆற்றிய உரை ;

Mr. Mohan Peiris, Sri Lanka, Clustered Interactive Dialogue with: - The Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment - The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders , 17th meeting of the Human Rights Council.

Video Link: http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/03/sri-lanka-item-3-id-17th-meeting-19th-session-human-rights-council.html

Full text of Sri Lanka's statement made today

SRI LANKA

Madam President,

Let me congratulate both Special Rapporteurs for dealing with a difficult mandate with prudence. Sri Lanka has had the· benefit of the knowledge and experience of several of your predecessors who helped in a very constructive manner to fine tuning ·our criminal jurisprudence. We have taken on board several of the suggestions and have implemented them.

Madam President, the expression human rights defender is a very amorphous term. We believe you have the competency to identify those of them whose heart and soul are genuinely with Human Rights. I would equally alert you not to fall prey to those who masquerade behind the readymade cloak of Human Rights defender creating political havoc wherever they are at the behest of their political masters in their execution of collateral agendas. The alert regarding Sri Lanka is pure conjecture and surmise and made with the singular purpose of causing prejudice to any constructive engagement between Sri Lanka and your office.

You will be pleased to note that Sri Lanka has a Zero tolerance policy on torture. This is cogently reflected in the fact that we have a constitutional guarantee against torture. We have also adopted the provisions of the Convention Against Torture into· our local legislation by the enactment of the Convention Against Torture Act. We have filed several prosecutions under this law against law enforcement officers. We are presently studying a major amendment to the Criminal Procedure to provide a Duty Attorney Scheme in every. Police .District on the lines of PACE in the UK providing legal services· as a mandatory right at police stations to every suspect within a short time of arrest. We also have in place the National Police Commission exclusively mandated to hear public complaints. Madam President, we are sensitive to the urgent

need to protect civil rights and particularly the ·protection against Torture.

We assure you that we will unconditionally support your work with which we share a common platform, a common objective. We are confident that we will succeed in our common stand against torture and uphold human rights as pledged in out National Action Plan and to this end you must take us into your confidence and weed out from your mind any seeds of prejudice against Sri Lanka which is well on the way to reconciliation.