Sri Lanka is as flexible as it is firm, it is as firm as it is
flexible- Dayan Jayatilleka
Remarks by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka to the resumed Sixth Session of the
Human Right Council on 11 December 2007.

We, as a country, are no less determined to root out terrorism
than is any country represented in this assembly today. We, Mr.
President, are as committed to vanquishing the secessionist
cause which that terrorism serves, as great presidents such as
Abraham Lincoln were when separatist challenges faced them in
their own country. So, it is in that historical
context that our discussion on human rights takes place. Sri
Lanka,
Mr. President, is as flexible as it is firm, it is as firm as it
is flexible on the matter of engagement with international
mechanisms in the promotion and safeguarding of human rights.
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Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative and Ambassador to the UN in
Geneva, Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka in responding to the statement by Ms.
Louise Arbour UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on the second day of
the Resumed Sixth Session of the Human Rights Council, said "our
negotiations with the OHCHR and international bodies will always be
informed by a determination that national institutions and national
processes shall be supplemented and supported by international
assistance, but shall never be supplanted or substituted by the
non-national".
Ms. Louise Arbour who visited Afghanistan, Brazil, Ireland and Sri
Lanka following the last session of the Human Rights Council in
September 2007, referred to Sri Lanka during the initial part of her
statement on her country visits.
Full transcript of the response by Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka: "Thank you,
Mr. President, Madam High Commissioner. At the outset, I wish to
associate myself fully and deeply with the sentiment of solidarity that
you Mr. President extended to our colleague, Ambassador Idriss Jazairy,
on the occasion of the terrorist attacks taking place in his country.
That tragic incident brings forth the context in which the discussion
on human rights in Sri Lanka takes place. Just a week ago, there were
three such terrorist attacks in Sri Lanka. By terrorist attacks, I mean
attacks wittingly, knowingly aimed at civilian targets.
The first, in the morning, was on an ethnic Tamil Minister. It was by
a polio-handicapped suicide bomber and the Minister in question was our
Minister of Social Services and Social Welfare who had signed Sri Lanka
up to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Disabled.
By evening, there was an attack on a shopping centre with no
political or military target in the vicinity. This was followed within
days by the attack on a bus, a civilian bus, which killed 15 civilians.
This is not collateral damage Mr. President, these are attacks wittingly
targeted at unarmed innocent non-combatant civilians.
We, as a country, are no less determined to root out terrorism than
is any country represented in this assembly today. We, Mr. President,
are as committed to vanquishing the secessionist cause which that
terrorism serves, as great presidents such as Abraham Lincoln were when
separatist challenges faced them in their own country.
So, it is in that historical context that our discussion on human
rights takes place. Sri Lanka, Mr. President, is as flexible as it is
firm, it is as firm as it is flexible on the matter of engagement with
international mechanisms in the promotion and safeguarding of human
rights.
We are engaged in negotiations with the OHCHR and as the High
Commissioner has correctly said, although we have not reached any
agreement, we have been discussing a variety of models of co-operation.
This discussion, Mr. President, is informed by our consistent policy and
that consistent policy has two components: the first is the primacy of
the national, the second is international scrutiny, support and
assistance.
Tomorrow Dr. Walter K"lin, the Representative of the Secretary
General on Internally Displaced Persons will begin his visit to Sri
Lanka's Eastern Province. We have agreed in principle to a visit by
Santiago Corcuera, Chairperson-Rapporteur of the United Nations Working
Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, sooner rather than
later next year. We remain open to scrutiny by all the core treaty
monitoring mechanisms to which we have subscribed.
This co-operation, continues Mr. President. However, we are also
justly proud of our national institutions. In the immediate aftermath of
the suicide bombings that I mentioned, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka
ruled that roadblocks and check points in Colombo, the metropolis, have
to be dismantled temporarily because they are not fully in keeping with
human rights and fundamental liberties.
That is the extent of the independence of our judiciary, Mr.
President, and of that we are justly proud.
Therefore, our negotiations with the OHCHR and international bodies
will always be informed by a determination that national institutions
and national processes shall be supplemented and supported by
international assistance, but shall never be supplanted or substituted
by the non-national". |