Promoting successful initiatives
I plan to conclude this series on March 25th, since by then I would
have written over a hundred columns on the subject. Besides, I see March
25th as a special day, because it is the birthday of Bishop Lakshman
Wickremesinghe, one of the founders of the Civil Rights Movement in the
seventies.
I will write about him for that date, but meanwhile I would like to
spend the next couple of weeks reflecting on the achievements of those
who have made some sort of a difference to the promotion of Rights in
Sri Lanka. Unfortunately I don’t think people like me who engage in
advocacy, such as through this column, have achieved very much. When
they do so, it is by engaging the attention of those who have
responsibilities for executive action and who take their
responsibilities seriously.
That responsibility does not necessarily have to lie with government.
There are several agencies that have formal responsibilities that can
also take initiatives. Chief amongst them in Sri Lanka is the Human
Rights Commission, which has certainly shown itself willing, but which
at present does not have enough capacity to push through the reforms it
understands are needed. Unfortunately it is not moving swiftly enough on
proposing the reforms to its own powers and structures, as envisaged by
the National Human Rights Action Plan, which the Cabinet has approved.
Training programmes
This is disappointing, because it is clear that, when individuals
take initiatives, they can ensure satisfactory results. In this regard I
cannot stress enough the achievements recently of the Police, largely
because of the dedication and commitment of the current Inspector
General of Police. Not only has he transformed the system of community
policing, but he has moved swiftly on training programmes, with agencies
such as the ICRC, which has done much quietly and without much publicity
in this regard in the last few years. This is in accordance with its
mandate which is to work together with national governments, while
promoting conformity to the highest standards with regard to human
rights.
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Police training programmes for better service to community |
Sadly, though the mandate of the UN is similar, it has not been so
successful, largely because some elements in it see their role as
confrontational. The stage was set for this by the first Representative
of the High Commissioner to be posted to Sri Lanka, who I see as
destructive in the same way that the previous IGP was, both of them
having other priorities.
The second representative was better, but she was soon withdrawn. The
third we managed to work with but I sometimes got the impression that
her heart was not in cooperation with government.
However it is possible that, when the Human Rights Ministry was
abolished, she had no counterparts with whom she could work effectively.
Certainly the failure to follow up on the very successful Trainer
Training programme we had conducted in 2009 lay as much with the IGP who
told me he did not want to do anything till after the elections.
Alternative mechanisms
The rest was history, but fortunately his successor also began to
rebuild the old team that had worked so well with us when the Ministry
took on the task of assisting with Police reform. It was that team that
told me firmly, when I talked about the need for training in Human
Rights, that they also needed professional training, because it is
policemen who are good at investigating and interrogating and
prosecuting who do not resort to other measures.
As the recent horrors in Los Angeles showed, our Police are not alone
in violating norms, and that is why we need to emphasize training and
professionalism, as the army did. That is how it transformed itself from
an amateur and indisciplined force in the eighties to the highly
competent and responsible body it now is.
I can only hope then that, though the current ICRC Representative,
who has achieved so much, is leaving, his successor will continue to
work on the lines he has established. But I also hope she will, now that
foundations have been laid, help us with developing our own training
institutions. Though training of Police trainers is vital, it is also
important to have outside agencies able to step in and offer alternative
mechanisms and perspectives.
Welfare Centres
In this regard I hope very much that the Colombo University Centre
for Human Rights is strengthened. I found them admirable when I needed
training in a Rights based approach for local officials working on the
Confidence Building and Stabilisation Measures project that the Ministry
of Disaster Management and Human Rights implemented during the last
years of the conflict.
We had an excellent imaginative coordinator for that, and indeed some
of the programmes she implemented provided the most prominent publicity
material when assistance was sought for the Welfare Centres established
to look after the displaced.
Unfortunately, given the centripetal tendencies of our
administrators, and the decision by UNHCR to streamline its operations
and abandon any that provided value addition, CBSM folded up. Some of
its innovative proposals, for home gardens and agricultural training,
are only being taken up now, though I am glad that the forces are
involved in this since they will achieve their objectives efficiently,
and make use I hope of institutions such as the Gandhi Centre that have
long experience in empowering local communities.
But it would be useful if in all this both administrators and
recipients of support and training were imbued with a Rights based
perspective, sympathetic to the needs and aspirations of others.
I hope then that both the ICRC and the UN will think of developing a
comprehensive project with the Colombo University Centre, to provide
training programmes for the Divisional Secretaries and their officials
who will need to oversee the various programmes envisaged for community
development. And this should encompass also communities in the North
Central and North Western Provinces, in addition to the North and East,
since they too require such support and strengthening. |