A mandate for the UNHRC

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TOPICS
World
Sri Lanka


diplomacy
United Nations
In adopting a country-specific resolution against Sri Lanka that calls upon the
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner to undertake a comprehensive
investigation into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights and
related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka, the UN Human Rights Council has
again brought the focus as much on the killings in the last phase of the civil war
in Sri Lanka, as on the international investigation into issues in a sovereign state.
No progress has been made to fix responsibility for the mass killings in the last
phase of the civil war in 2009. The resolution, co-sponsored by 41 countries and
piloted by the U.S., contended that Sri Lanka has failed to achieve reconciliation
following the end of the three-decade long civil war. But it does not build on the
earlier resolutions against Sri Lanka; it rather marks a worrying point of
departure. So far, the emphasis has been on encouraging and urging Sri Lanka.
The new mandate of the international investigative mechanism is open-ended.
Opponents of the resolution were against the imposition of an international
investigation by expanding the role of the Office of the High Commissioner for
Human Rights (OHCHR), and the Special Procedures of the HRC. The resolution
includes many prescriptive elements. The U.S. sees the vote as an act that seeks
to push Sri Lanka into pursuing lasting peace, and wants to drive home the point
that justice and accountability cannot wait.
India was in the limelight at the 25th session of the HRC. It had unconditionally
backed Sri Lanka in the 2009 session, soon after the end of the war. It went to the
other extreme and voted against Sri Lanka in 2012 and 2013. In fact, in 2013 it
even worked to make the language of the resolution harsher. The same conditions
as in 2013 exist now: elections to the Northern provincial council were held in
September 2012. The Tamil Nadu factor that had influenced Indias vote the last
time round seems to have lost steam with the Congress and the DMK parting
ways. In any case, it is debatable if even at its height it would have overcome
Indias long-standing opposition to intrusive international investigations as
envisaged by the latest resolution. By voting twice against Sri Lanka in the past
years, India had already antagonised the majority Sinhala community. With India
abstaining this time, the northern Tamils seem to have lost faith in India. Not
many believe anything will change for Tamils in Sri Lanka if the OHCHR carries
out the investigation. An intrusive investigation has so far not yielded genuine
reconciliation, and a life of dignity and self-respect for people anywhere. Sri
Lanka cant be any different.