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Sri Lanka: The Role of the United States on the UN Human Rights Council and the Need for Urgent Action

February 6, 2012

Since the end of Sri Lanka’s war in May 2009, it has become clear that serious human rights abuses, amounting to war crimes and crimes against humanity, were committed by the Sri Lankan government and the LTTE during 2008 and 2009. These allegations were significant enough that the UN Secretary-General appointed a Panel of Experts in 2010 to look into the matter. The panel reported that it “found credible allegations, which if proven, indicate that a wide range of serious violations of international humanitarian and international human rights law by the Government of Sri Lanka and the LTTE, some of which would amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.” One of the recommendations made by the panel was the establishment of an independent international mechanism to conduct an investigation into these alleged violations if genuine and effective domestic investigations are not undertaken.

The State Department has also reported incidents in the final stages of the war which may constitute violations of international humanitarian law or crimes against humanity. These incidents are outlined in the report to Congress in 2009 and include intentional starving of civilians, bombing of civilians in no fire zones using heavy weaponry, repeated bombing of hospitals, torture and executions of those surrendering. Shelling of civilians using heavy weaponry continued despite a public appeal to the Sri Lankan government by President Obama to refrain from such acts.

These alleged crimes affected a large number of civilians and a range of between 40,000 and 145,000 Tamil civilians remain unaccounted for.

Domestic mechanisms in Sri Lanka to provide accountability for these crimes have failed either to uncover the facts, to provide justice or to promote reconciliation. The Sri Lankan Government’s domestic mechanism, the Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Committee (LLRC) fails to address the issue of accountability. The UN panel noted that the LLRC fails to satisfy international standards of independence and impartiality. Human Rights Watch noted that the LLRC disregards the worst abuses by the government forces, rehashes longstanding recommendations and fails to advance accountability for victims of the civil conflict.

The inaction by the international community in the face of such grave violations of the international law and human rights' standards has consequences for the rule of law. The UN Panel stated that “indeed the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace.” Impunity and abuses continue in Sri Lanka. The 2011 US country report on human rights practices notes that the “official impunity was a problem; there were no public indications or reports that civilian or military courts convicted any military or police members for human rights abuses.”

The UN Secretary-General referred the Panel of Expert’s report to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2011. The Council can initiate the international mechanism needed to investigate these alleged violations of international law and help Sri Lanka heal its wounds. The US Government is a key and influential actor which has the opportunity to positively influence the Human Rights Council’s process of accountability in Sri Lanka. Without international attention on Sri Lanka, the culture of impunity in the country will continue and a lasting solution will not be possible.

If the Human Rights Council does not move forward on the issue of accountability in Sri Lanka in March and if the HRC does not keep the UN Panel of Experts’ report on its agenda for future sessions, getting the issue of these serious crimes on the UN agenda again may be very difficult.

The US, working with other member states including from the South, should strive to address the serious concerns of alleged violations of international human rights law at the Human Rights Council by establishing an international mechanism to 1.) monitor the domestic accountability process along with ongoing human rights abuses and to 2.) conduct an independent investigation.

I ask that you contact Secretary of State Hillary Clinton immediately urging her to vigorously promote the establishment of an international mechanism to investigate violations of international and humanitarian law during the war in Sri Lanka at the March sessions of the UN Human Rights Council.