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Daunting challenges of rebuilding:
Cementing peace after defeat of terrorism
Address by Disaster Management and Human Rights
Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe at the 22nd Annual Sessions of the
Organization of Professional Associations in Colombo. The first, second
and third parts appeared on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday
The action plan has been finalized earlier this week with the active
cooperation of all key Government actors, civil society and our
international partners. Technical support for this important initiative
is provided by the UNDP and ILO who will work along-side local experts
and stakeholders. Our main focus is to ensure inter-agency coordination
and a harmonized approach. This, we believe, will prove efficient,
prevent duplication and ensure that all agencies are working towards a
common goal and are moving in one direction.
We expect that it will also help build synergies among the various
operational agencies who are working on individual components of an
integrated strategy.
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Disaster Management
and Human Rights Minister
Mahinda Samarasinghe |
Reconciliation
Political accommodation through an inclusive reconciliation process
will be the final component in the Government efforts to finally end
nearly three decades of conflict. Successful elections have recently
been concluded to local bodies in Jaffna and Vavuniya.
It is significant that opposition groups were able to campaign and
contest and even gain a working majority in one local authority. As we
were committed to restoring democratic institutions in the East after
the conclusion of operations in that region in 2007, democratic
institutions must and will be resuscitated in the North for the benefit
of the people. President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already reached out to
political parties to join hands with him in cementing the peace that is
now possible after the defeat of terrorism. To guide and give direction
to the overall process of national healing, reconciliation and political
accommodation of all Sri Lankans within a unified democratic framework,
a multi-party Committee on Development and Reconciliation has been
convened by the President.
Post-conflict challenges
The forum reflects the Government commitment to a pluralistic and
inclusive approach in addressing post-conflict challenges. The present
focus is on immediate concerns relating to IDPs. With the gradual
restoration of democracy and the resuscitation of institutions of
representative governance as we have seen in the East and subsequently
in the North, the Committee deliberations are expected to set in motion
a home-grown process aimed at ensuring long-term stability through the
addressing of legitimate political and developmental needs of the people
in those areas.
The foregoing amply demonstrates that the Government of the President
has the plans and programs in place to deal with the challenges that we
are faced with the in post-conflict phase.
We have to rebuild our institutional foundations to foster and
preserve the truly multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-cultural and
multi-religious Sri Lanka that we wish to create.
Our vision is the creation of a new Sri Lankan identity which is a
unifying factor which also acknowledges and cherishes the wonderful
diversity that characterizes our society.
Human rights
To enable this, the promotion and protection of human rights
economic, social and cultural as well as civil and political rights and
the right to development is of prime importance.
This is why, in keeping with our pledge made at the Universal
Periodic Review process before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in
May last year, we have taken steps to develop a National Plan of Action
for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.
Work on the first draft of the Plan is nearing completion and we
expect that it will provide a framework that will enable us to guarantee
the rights of all of our people in the years to come.
National objectives such as ensuring the continuation of the GSP+
facility will be greatly facilitated by the successful implementation of
the National Plan of Action and we are confident that, given adequate
time, we can fulfill our international obligations in the sphere of
human rights and governance with the same commitment, dedication and
sense of purpose with which we defeated terrorism. Concluded |
