Dealing with High Commissioner for Human Rights NAVI PILLAY
The
latest pronouncement of the UN High Commissioner does not bode well for
Sri Lanka. The immediate reason for this is the impeachment of the Chief
Justice, but if reports in the papers a couple of weeks back are
inaccurate, she has been simmering for some time.
It was reported that she had sent a letter suggesting visits by what
are termed Special Procedures, but the response she had received had
ignored this and simply suggested that she visit us soon. We knew at the
last meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee to implement the
National Human Rights Action Plan that there had been a letter, but what
was being done was not made clear.
This seemed a bit hard on Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who has been
the ministerial envoy to the Human Rights Council for well over half a
decade now. It would obviously make sense to keep him in the loop, and
indeed consult him about our official position but, as I have noted
before, coordination is not something common in Sri Lanka.
Crucial player
This is particularly hard on him now, because he has lost his
principal ally in recent years in dealing with problems in Geneva. Mohan
Pieris began to join us in Geneva in Dayan Jayatilleka’s time even
before he became Attorney General, and continued to attend every session
since then, including when Mahinda Samarasinghe was not deployed. He was
obviously a crucial player when he was Attorney General, and perhaps
even more so afterwards when he chaired the Inter-Ministerial Committee
to implement the Interim Recommendations of the LLRC, and now that he
has been in virtual charge together with the President’s Secretary of
the LLRC Action Plan. However as Chief Justice he will probably not be
able to be on the delegation, which will be tough on Minister
Samarasinghe. It is even more important therefore that he be consulted
about policies and decisions. If the newspaper report is anything to go
by, one stumbling block seems to have been our refusal to invite holders
of Special Mandates. This is something that has not happened in the last
few years, which is a pity, because we got nothing but positive
co-operation from such Representatives as visited us in the nearly two
years I was Secretary to the Ministry.
Presidential Task Force
Walter Kalin, the Special Representative on the Rights of the
Displaced, came three times, and was extremely helpful. Whilst being
quite firm about any shortcomings, he was sympathetic to our position
and did not hold with the dogmas that some junior UN personnel were
propagating. He did not agree that we could not keep people at Manik
Farm, but he said there should be time limits and a plan for returns.
Just as he was getting impatient, the process of returns began, and due
credit must be given for this to the Presidential Task Force, since
there was some opposition at the time from the then Chief of Staff, who
has since emerged as a great defender of Human Rights.
Minister Mahinda
Samarasinghe |
Special Representative on the
Rights of the Displaced
Walter Kalin |
The positive approach of Kalin can be seen from the fact that he has
practically been ignored in the latest report offered to the UN
Secretary General. As I noted in my responses to the UN News Agency IRIN
which interviewed me, ‘There is no reference in the main report to the
visits of the UN Representative on the Rights of the Displaced, and
glancing through the appendices I believe only his December 2007 visit
is mentioned. This seems bizarre, when there are allegations about the
welfare centres, and we invited him two or three times and did our best
to abide by his recommendations. Certainly we stuck by the guiding
principles of the Brookings document, and our relations with him were
very positive.’
I am not sure though if the Ministry of External Affairs is aware of
all this, because they did not follow up on the work we had done when
responsibility for Human Rights was handed over to them.
This was not the fault of the Minister, who had wanted the services
of our experienced Consultant, but the Ministry failed to act and
Minister Samarasinghe snapped him up to chair the Sugar Corporation when
there was a delay.
Unfair pressures
He could have told them that there was really no reason to be nervous
about Special Representatives, for most of them are academics with no
particular political agenda. Of course we no longer had Dayan
Jayatilleka, who monitored the situation and could tell us if any would
try to move beyond their brief, but it does not take rocket science to
work out who would be helpful. The two who came in his time, both Kalin
and Manfred Nowak, who was concerned with torture, produced moderate
reports designed to help us improve the situation rather than simply
point fingers.
I am sure there are others who would be equally helpful, but we seem
to have decided that none should be invited. It is possible that this is
because we do not have knowledgeable personnel in place who could deal
with any queries, as was done by our Ministry and the experienced pair
from the Attorney General’s Department, Shavindra Fernando and Yasantha
Kodagoda, who had been attending sessions in Geneva from long before
Dayan’s time.
Chief Justice Mohan Pieris, PC |
Though at one stage a decision was taken to rotate personnel, both of
them were present in Geneva last March, and I am sure they can take
charge of providing information for any visitors, in consultation with
Minister Samarasinghe and the Consultant who is back at work now, though
the conditions under which he works could be improved, given the scope
of his responsibilities at this difficult stage.
Certainly we should be looking at what we can achieve through
cooperation, if we also want to be firm about resisting unfair
pressures. |