Abstract:
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a
resolution in March 2012 pertaining to the promotion of the reconciliation
and accountability in post-war Sri Lanka. The crux of the resolution focused
on the expeditious implementation of the constructive recommendations
made in the report of the Government appointed Lessons Learnt and
Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and to take all necessary additional
steps to fulfil its relevant legal obligations. The Government of Sri Lanka
opposed the adoption of this resolution claiming it as an unwarranted
intervention to domestic affairs of a sovereign State. The objective of this
paper is to examine and evaluate the impact of the Human Rights Council’s
Resolution on the reconciliation efforts in post war Sri Lanka. At present, Sri
Lanka is transforming from war to peace and attempts to establish rule of
law and foster reconciliation to the country in the aftermath of a deadly
armed conflict. Therefore, it is the utmost obligation of the country to take
all the viable and appropriate steps to achieve the said purposes. However,
the strong unwillingness demonstrated by the Government in Geneva
against the adoption of the UNHRC resolution warrants a careful
examination of the background that compelled the international community
to pass a stern resolution on Sri Lanka requesting to achieve meaningful
accountability upon which lasting reconciliation efforts could be built. Based
on these developments, this paper wishes to discuss the following issues
mainly: Can Sri Lanka reject the fulfillment of her obligations under the
Resolution passed by the UNHRC claiming the sovereignty of the State and
the principle of nonintervention, and, can the international community turn
a blind eye where human security of people comes under severe strain due to
the conduct or absence of conduct of the instrumentalities of the State? The
paper finds the striking a balance between the primary obligations of a
sovereign State and the residual responsibility of the international
community is as extremely difficult. This paper further evaluates the
recommendations made by the LLRC report appointed by the Government
of Sri Lanka in May 2010 and the need of implementing them.
