28 March, 2024

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Implement CTF Recommendations: International Commission Of Jurists Tells Sri Lanka

The Sri Lankan government must deliver on the clear demand for justice from Sri Lankans nationwide by implementing the Consultation Task Force recommendations without further delay, the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) said last night.

ICJ926Among these recommendations, the calls for a special court with international judges and a bar against amnesties for crimes under international law are of particular importance, the ICJ added.

The Consultation Task Force on Reconciliation Mechanisms (CTF), a panel of 11 independent eminent persons appointed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in January 2016, publicly released its final report on 3 January 2017.

The report, reflecting the views of people across the country gathered through island-wide public consultations on transitional justice, highlights the lack of public confidence in the justice system’s capacity and will to deliver justice for victims of Sri Lanka’s nearly 30-year armed conflict that ended in 2009.

“The CTF report highlights a widespread lack of trust among Sri Lankans across the country, regardless of region, ethnicity, religion or language, in the ability of the criminal justice system in its current form to address serious human rights abuses stemming from the conflict,” said Nikhil Narayan, the ICJ’s South Asia senior legal adviser.

The report also calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to take necessary steps to ensure a credible transitional justice process in line with the October 2015 UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 that it co-sponsored.

“If the Sri Lankan government wants to restore public confidence in the system, it must seriously consider victims’ voices and implement the CTF recommendations on truth, justice and reparation consistent with the commitments it voluntary undertook at the Human Rights Council,” Narayan added.

Importantly, the CTF report reiterates the commitments pledged in HRC resolution 30/1, calling for active international participation in a special judicial mechanism established to deal with accountability for human rights abuses committed during the conflict by both sides, and for a bar against amnesties for international crimes.

According to the ICJ, the Sri Lankan government took an important first step towards reconciliation when it adopted the UN resolution and later established the CTF to carry out public consultations to hear a cross section of voices on transitional justice.

“Unfortunately, since then, it has been disappointing in its lack of urgency in implementing much of those stated promises and in its apparent disregard for the CTF recommendations,” Narayan said.

Several members of the government have dismissed the CTF’s recommendations, especially with regard to the inclusion of at least one international judge on every bench of the special judicial mechanism.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs recently spoke of the need for “an independent and credible domestic mechanism” without alluding to any international participation, as has been reiterated by those seeking redress as a crucial element to ensure faith in the justice mechanism.

The ICJ has in the past highlighted Sri Lanka’s culture of impunity in the justice system looking at a number of emblematic cases, and called into question the State’s capacity and political will to use the criminal justice system and other ad-hoc measures to deliver justice and accountability to victims and survivors of serious human rights abuses.

“As the situation of Sri Lanka comes before the UN Human Rights Council again this March, the Sri Lankan government is in a position to demonstrate both to the UN Member States but more importantly to its own people at home its seriousness in pursuing truth, justice, reparation and non-recurrence for conflict victims who have been waiting for justice for decades. It must seize this opportunity before it is one more of many missed opportunities,” Narayan added. (ICJ)

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Latest comments

  • 2
    0

    Not going to happen!
    International Judges?? Never going to happen!

    ICJ should ask President Trump that international judges be used in a special court against the US Police shootings, killing hundreds of innocent Blacks. None of the officers have been convicted of any crime so far.
    I think when Trump agrees and the court materializes Sri Lanka should follow suit by having international judges.

    • 0
      2

      You are a one big joker. Let me direct you to an incident which became headlines for a while and published on this very same website, ‘The Colombo Telegraph’ on the 30th of October 2011. Please read the news article and decide for yourself.
      This is the sort of Law and Justice, Lawyers ,Judges and judgments, the CTF are talking about. So, I think it is quite obvious for an individual ‘Empty Vessel’ like you to come out with an ignorant view of the sorry situation the Sri Lanka’s justice system has fallen into.

      I hope Thushara Jayaratne is alive and well. Also wish him peace, happiness and prosperity.

      https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/namal-rajapaksas-law-exam-cheating-case-goes-to-geneva/

  • 0
    2

    “Kedukudi Sol keeaathu, Saakiravan marunthu kudiyaan” – The family to go spoiled is not going to heed advices and the man who is going to die will not accept medicine”.

    These all advices are going in vain for 70 years. There was no reason to disenfranchise and deport the Tamil who were earning the foreign exchange for the country to eat free rice.

  • 1
    0

    AS long as Sri lanka remains a begger to the world, Sri lankan has to listen to these hyenas.

  • 0
    0

    This comment was removed by a moderator because it didn’t abide by our Comment policy.For more detail see our Comment policy https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/comments-policy-2/

  • 0
    0

    One more chance [a last one] to the GoSL to act according to the CTF’s recommendations and guide the Country in the correct direction. I do hope for this miracle to happen!

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