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| Saturday, 2 October 2004 |
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by P. Krishnaswamy Dr. Radhika Coomaraswamy, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission and Director of the Centre for Ethnic Studies, observed that what mostly determined the well-being or otherwise of those migrating to affluent countries is the classification of their refugee status by those countries, at the launch of the South Asian Declaration on the Rights of Refugees, the Sinhala and Tamil Translations of the 1951 Convention on the status of refugees and its 1967 protocol. The launch of the documents was held recently under the auspices of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Colombo, and the Eminent Persons Group on Refugees and Migratory Movements (EPG), Sri Lanka, at the Hotel Taj Samudra. As an human rights activist, she had observed that refugees and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) were often stripped of their human dignity and subjected to inhuman treatments, including sexual exploitations of the women. It was important to equip them with standard concepts and laws in order to allow them to regain their lost dignity, she said. In that context the documents which were launched were most significant and a welcome move. Chairperson of the EPG and former Secretary to the PM, Bradman Weerakoon, speaking at the function said that the launch was an important occasion for all those concerned with and involved in activities relating to human rights, their advocacy and extension and the humanitarian work connected to it. He further said that new accessions to the convention have been few because of various current circumstances, such as: * the abuse of the right of asylum by smugglers and economic migrants, * the large scale exodus of populations owing to civil wars, etc, placing financial strains on the receiving countries, and *increasingly restrictive practices by several developed 'convention countries', eg: Australia and boat people; the US - terrorism. Sri Lanka should accede to the treaty or have its own legislation on refugees for many reasons, he said. UNHCR representative, Neil Wright, said that during his three year tenure in Sri Lanka the UNHCR did a splendid work and was responsible for the return of a large number of IDPs back to their homes. When the ongoing ceasefire began in February 2002, an estimated 730,000 people were displaced within the country, 80,000 were living as refugees in India and a further 60,000 could be found in other countries. Since then many have returned and in particular, 340,000 IDPs had made the journey back home by the end of 2003, he said. The international community is confronted with the monumental task of ensuring protection for persons forcibly uprooted from their homes by violent conflicts, gross violations of human rights and other traumatic events, but who remain within the borders of their own countries. Nearly always they suffer from severe deprivation, hardship and discrimination. It is to meet this challenge that the Guiding Principles on IDPs were developed, Neil Wright said. Sri Lanka is one of the countries that is yet to ratify the 1951 UN Convention on Refugee Status, he said. Member of the Constitutional Council and renowned HR lawyer, S. S. Wijeratne, also spoke. |
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