Warning bells from Geneva again

Warning bells are sounding for the Government of Sri Lanka from the Swiss canton of Geneva, where the 48th session of the UN Human Rights Council is currently underway. 

Presenting her first report on Sri Lanka since the Council adopted a crushing resolution at its 46th session in March 2021, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet did not pull any punches. Her oral update to the 47-member Council dealt with a gamut of human rights concerns in Sri Lanka, including the Government’s controversial de-radicalisation regulations, rampant militarisation of the civilian administration and the continued use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act to incarcerate critics, including attorney Hejaaz Hizbullah and Mannar poet Ahnaf Jazeem. 

Calling the Government’s bluff on its announcements regarding amendments to the draconian anti-terror legislation, Bachelet said she was deeply concerned about the continued use of the laws to detain and incarcerate people. The UN’s Chief Envoy on Human Rights has urged an immediate moratorium on the use of the PTA and seeks a clear timeline for its comprehensive review or repeal. 

The High Commissioner’s assessment of the Government’s abuse of the PTA will factor into the European Commission’s calculations as it prepares to review Sri Lanka’s eligibility for GSP plus trade concessions. The tariff concessions which give Sri Lankan exports a fighting chance to enter the large European single market are already hanging in the balance after the European Parliament ordered the EU Commission to consider a temporary withdrawal of the GSP Plus scheme extended to Sri Lanka if the Government continuously failed to repeal the draconian PTA and adhere to its human rights obligations under international law. 

Sri Lanka’s eligibility for the coveted concessions is due for review in 2022, and the Government’s recent announcements that it had set up a panel to study the 40-year-old PTA analysts believe stemmed from a need to show movement towards repealing the legislation to maintain the GSP Plus status quo. Bachelet’s remarks to the Human Rights Council on the Government contradictory approach to the anti-terror law, will lend weight to a growing chorus of human rights groups calling for meaningful action by the EU and the international community to ensure Sri Lanka’s human rights compliance. 

Equally worrying for the Government of Sri Lanka, as it intersperses its ham-handed management of the COVID-19 pandemic with repressive crackdowns against critics and dissidents was the High Commissioner’s announcement that her Office had already developed an evidence repository with nearly 120,000 individual items already held by the UN. The crux of UNHRC Resolution 46/1 on Sri Lanka was the independent mechanism the Council decided to set up at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on war crimes and human rights violations in Sri Lanka. 

The resolution mandated Bachelet’s Office to “collect, analyse and consolidate” evidence on atrocities committed in Sri Lanka to assist with prosecutorial processes under universal jurisdiction which would allow Lankan perpetrators to be tried for their crimes overseas. 

Six months after the Resolution was adopted in Geneva, Bachelet has now informed the Council that initial steps have been taken to set up the evidence mechanism, pending recruitment of staff. She has also urged Member States of the UN to ensure the necessary budgets are passed at UN HQ in New York for her office to get on with the work.