AALCO makes rich and varied contribution to jurisprudence

Keynote address delivered by External Affairs Minister Professor G. L. Peiris at the 50th anniversary session of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization (AALCO) in Colombo

We are obviously very proud of the choice of Sri Lanka as the venue of these deliberations, especially because, as President Mahinda Rajapaksa pointed out in his inaugural remarks, these discussions represent a milestone in the development of the Asian-African Legal Consultative Organization. It represents a half-century of development and a rich and varied contribution to the jurisprudence of the world. Another aspect of these deliberations is the acuity with which you have chosen the themes that will be the subject of discussion. These themes have been very carefully chosen, and they have immense practical importance in the context of the continents of Asia and Africa and certainly in the context of the current priorities in our own country, Sri Lanka.

If we take a few examples, you propose to discuss in depth matters relating to piracy, the regime of the oceans and the security of sea lanes. This is a matter of immediate concern to many of our countries.

Minister Prof G. L. Peiris

Sri Lanka has been quite seriously affected, some of our fishermen have been held hostage and the government of Sri Lanka has had to intervene on several occasions to ensure their safe return to our country. There are many issues in this area, which need to be addressed in earnest.

International law

There is a significant lacuna in international law and practice with regard to the retention of ransom money. Today the people who benefit from piracy are not principally the pirates themselves but the people who organize these criminal activities. It has been found exceedingly difficult under current international practice to follow the money that is paid as ransom.

Restitution of these resources has been exceedingly difficult to achieve under international law and practice, as it is currently structured.

That is an area that we certainly have to concentrate on. Then the people who organize these activities in a very sophisticated and orchestrated manner, how do you deal with them? How do you take action in the particular countries where this criminal activity is taking place? How do you achieve far better coordination, lack of which is one of the yawning gaps in the system? How do you bring together the different agencies which have functions to perform in respect of these different issues? And when you bring these people to trial, who would actually be responsible for the adjudication? Who would pay for it? Sometimes countries have found that if they take the initiative in apprehending these pirates, they have to bear the brunt of the financial expenses.

Political career

With regard to enforcement, there are many unresolved issues which call for the urgent attention of the international community and these deliberations in Colombo, I think, provide us with a very appropriate forum to address some of these issues in detail.

Then take the whole area of sustainable development and the protection of the environment. President Rajapaksa said that throughout his political career, he regarded one matter as being of cardinal importance, and it is this. The solutions that we evolve in our different countries, have to be in harmony with the value systems and the cultural traditions which we have nurtured over the centuries. Judge Hishasi Owada, in his remarks to us, pointed out that out of the 15 judges of the International Court of Justice, six come from the Asian region. He also pointed out very convincingly, that more and more Asian countries are relying on the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice to arrive at solutions to their problems which are achieved not by having recourse to force but by application of the rules of International Law.

If that is so, I am sure Judge Owada would unhesitatingly agree, indeed that was explicit in his remarks, that the culture of the country in question is of paramount importance.

Cultural traditions

We are holding these discussions in the month of June which has special significance in the setting of the cultural traditions of our own country because June is the month in which Buddhism was brought to Sri Lanka. It was brought here by the son of the Emperor Asoka, during the time of King Devanampiyatissa, one of the celebrated kings of this Island during the Anuradhapura period. Emperor Dharmasoka sent his son Arahath Mahinda with the sacred message of Buddhism and in the ancient chronicles of our history, there is a moving passage in which there is a description of Arahath Mahinda standing on the Mihinthale rock.

King Devanampiyatissa was aiming his arrow at a deer, Arahath Mahinda, addressing the King said, “O King mighty as you are, you are not the owner of the environment. You are duty bound to handover the environment around us, the rivers, the valleys, the mountains and streams, in the pristine state of purity in which you inherited this environment from those who went before you, your ancestors.”

Now this is, I think, the genesis of the concept of trusteeship, as it is known both to domestic and to international legal systems, the concept of trusteeship, as distinguished from full ownership.

Economic development

Sri Lanka, in keeping with the tenets of that culture, has always believed that there is no conflict between the imperatives of economic development, on the one hand, and vital issues connected with prevention of the degradation of the environment, on the other. These are two sides of a coin. They must go in tandem. Sri Lanka is today achieving economic development at the threshold of more than eight percent. But while we do that, we take care, immense care, to ensure that the economic development we achieve is of a sustainable kind, and it will be sustainable only if it is achieved in keeping with the purity and the integrity of the environment.

To be continued