The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on Friday (17) called on the Sri Lankan Government to urgently establish an independent prosecutorial authority, appoint a special prosecutor, and create an ad hoc special court to address gross violations of international human rights law and serious breaches of international humanitarian law.
In its latest report on accountability for enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka, the OHCHR has recommended enhancing the capabilities of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), ensuring thorough investigations into mass graves, and providing access to relevant archives and reports from various Commissions of Inquiry (CoIs).
The report stated that in 2016, the Government had established the OMP and over the last seven years, the OMP, despite having broad powers under its legislation, appears to have taken what might be described as an administrative “case management approach,” with preliminary inquiries focused on the eligibility of victim families to financial assistance, rather than carrying out thorough investigations to clarify the fate and whereabouts of individuals.
“The OMP faces a lack of trust from victim communities. Ideally, international technical assistance should be directed to supporting a re-orientation of the OMP towards clarifying the fate and whereabouts of disappeared persons, strengthening the institution’s independence, and ensuring a safe environment for victims to engage,” stated the report.
The OHCHR recommends that the Government acknowledge the scale of disappearances and the involvement of State security forces and armed groups, as well as the issuance of a public State apology.
It calls upon Sri Lanka to intensify independent investigations and expedite constitutional and legal reform to ensure an effective framework for the investigation and prosecution of enforced disappearances.
Before any new truth-seeking mechanism is established, the OHCHR recommends that Sri Lanka creates an enabling environment and implements crucial confidence-building measures, including ending threats, harassment, and unlawful and arbitrary surveillance against human rights defenders and victims’ groups.
Any truth-seeking mechanism needs to be part of a comprehensive transitional justice strategy that includes a judicial mechanism, it notes.
Similarly, the OHCHR recommends a comprehensive and gender-sensitive approach to reparations. It also calls for the taking of immediate steps to prevent recurrence of enforced disappearances, including refraining from appointing or promoting credibly alleged perpetrators of violations to high-level positions.
The OHCHR recommends that the international community continues to closely monitor developments and progress towards accountability by Sri Lanka through the Human Rights Council (HRC) and use all means at its disposal to ensure accountability, including through its bilateral and multilateral relationships, its use of universal jurisdiction, and other avenues of international justice as well as targeted sanctions.
It is further stated that from the 1970s through to the end of the civil war in 2009, Sri Lanka witnessed several waves of enforced disappearances. Primarily used by Sri Lankan security forces and affiliated paramilitary groups as a tool to intimidate and oppress perceived opponents, it is apparent that, at a minimum, tens of thousands have been subject to enforced disappearances. Perpetrators at all levels continue to escape justice. Impunity remains deeply entrenched. Families remain without knowledge of the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared relatives.
“In recent years, Sri Lanka has taken some positive steps, including ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED); criminalising enforced disappearances; and establishing a range of CoIs, the OMP, and the Office for Reparations (OR). However, these steps have not resulted in tangible progress in realising victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparations, and guarantees of non-recurrence.
“For as long as the fate and whereabouts of a disappeared person remain unclarified, the enforced disappearance remains a ‘continuing violation’. Placing victims at the heart of its work, the OHCHR conducted bilateral interviews with 39 victims (32 women and seven men) and convened focus groups involving 43 victims (34 women and nine men) to learn of their experiences and their perspectives on accountability,” the report states.
Source: Sunday Morning
