Some have pointed to President Sirisena’s mention of a domestic accountability process as sufficient reason to postpone or even cancel the OISL’s work. The apparent call for a postponement became clear following Senior Advisor Jayantha Dhanapala’s meeting with you in Geneva on 29 January 2015, and from statements by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in Washington and New York. This is extremely troubling, as any change in the OISL’s work would be a major blow to justice and accountability, and would bring into question the neutrality of the OHCHR.

The Northern Provincial Council on February 10th unanimously adopted a resolution brought by its Chief Minister, Justice C.V. Wigneswaran making a well researched case that the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been subjected to genocide by successive Sri Lanka governments. The Resolution urged the OISL to investigate the charge of genocide against Tamils, and unequivocally called for the timely release of the OISL report and further OHCHR mandated actions including referral to the ICC. Our organizations representing the 1-million strong Tamil Diaspora forced out of Sri Lanka due to the conflict, and having lost tens of thousands of relatives, fully endorse the call by the Northern Provincial Council, and urge you to release the OISL report in March 2015 as originally mandated. President Sirisena’s election and short tenure do not negate the need for a timely release. The UN stands as the standard bearer of human rights. Therefore, any recommendations within the OISL report should serve as the baseline and driving force to guide a credible accountability process.

Moreover, the victims and perpetrators are looking to the report as the first – and only – credible accounting for what happened during the final period of the war. To amend that will crush the hope and expectations for justice, as well as play into the hands of the perpetrators who will see this as an opportunity to evade justice.

The failure of the UNHCR to release its report in March would set a terrible precedent for the United Nations. The 2012 UN Internal Review Panel, chaired by Charles Petrie, concluded that, “the events in Sri Lanka mark a grave failure on the UN to adequately respond to early warnings and to the evolving situation during the final stages of the conflict and its aftermath, to the detriment of hundreds of thousands of civilians and in contradiction with the principles and responsibilities of the UN.” Since the report, the UN has made strides to address its grave failure. A postponement of the report would be a treacherous step backwards for the organization.

The global Tamil community welcomes President Sirisena’s progress on replacing military leadership with civilian leaders in the North, welcoming back some exiled activists and journalists, and offering to resettle internally displaced persons. However, Tamils still await the demilitarization of the North and East, the return of Tamil land acquired by the government, constitutional protections for Tamil language and culture in their traditional homeland in the NorthEast, empowering of the Tamil provincial bodies to serve its people without barriers from the Colombo government, and, most vitally, the attainment of a fair political settlement. We encourage you and other global leaders to welcome President Sirisena by both commending the steps he has taken and at the same time also outlining past challenges and ongoing abuses, setting assertive and credible benchmarks for domestic progress, and providing assistance and oversight to ensure these benchmarks are met. Sri Lanka cannot develop as a pluralistic, democratic and stable country if one – or any – of its communities live with substandard access to democratic institutions and without full protection of the law.