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Role of the UNHRC - Crossing the limits:
We shall overcome the turbulent waves generated by vested interests
By Dr. Telli Rajarathnam
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The bombing of the Sacred tooth relic - Dalada Maligawa
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Let us remain calm. Let us present our submissions factually with
evidence. Let us not be perturbed by emotions. Let us think before we
speak, write or act. Let our voice be united, sober and dignified. Let
us be loyal and diligent. Let us uphold the norms of the Constitution
and thereby defend the Head of State who is the Commander in Chief of
the Armed Forces by virtue of the Constitution and owe allegiance as
citizens of this beautiful isle which has been the subject of
controversy
We shall overcome. We shall overcome. We shall overcome the turbulent
waves articulated by vested interests. Sri Lanka will be the ultimate
tourist destination. We have all four seasons throughout the year in
various parts of the country. This is a chosen land.
UNHRC
The Human Rights Council is an inter-governmental body within the
United Nations system responsible for strengthening the promotion and
protection of human rights around the globe and for addressing
situations of human rights violations and make recommendations on them.
It has the ability to discuss all thematic human rights issues and
situations that require its attention throughout the year. It meets at
the UN Office at Geneva.
The Council is made up of 47 United Nations Member States which are
elected by the UN General Assembly. The Human Rights Council replaced
the former United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Creation
The Council was created by the United Nations General Assembly on 15
March 2006 by resolution 60/251. Its first session took place from June
19 to 30, 2006. One year later, the Council adopted its
“Institution-building package” to guide its work and set up its
procedures and mechanisms.
Among them were the Universal Periodic Review mechanism which serves
to assess the human rights situations in all United Nations Member
States, the Advisory Committee which serves as the Council’s “think
tank” providing it with expertise and advice on thematic human rights
issues and the Complaint Procedure which allows individuals and
organisations to bring human rights violations to the attention of the
Council.
The Human Rights Council also works with the UN Special Procedures
established by the former Commission on Human Rights and now assumed by
the Council.
These are made up of special rapporteurs, special representatives,
independent experts and working groups that monitor, examine, advise and
publicly report on thematic issues or human rights situations in
specific countries.
The current trends in international affairs relating to Sri Lanka is
not against terrorism but how the world look at us owing to the
accusations made against us by vested interests and whether we have
overcome the difficulties and convinced the world that we were justified
in doing what we had to do by eradicating terrorism.
We must take effective measures to safeguard the legitimate rights
and interests of the developing nations and work towards a new
international political and economic order that is fair and rational.
First, it is imperative to promote democracy in international relations.
To respect the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political
independence of all countries and resolve internal conflicts. The
affairs of each and every country should be left to its own people to
decide. Global challenges should be tackled through international
cooperation and co-ordination.
All countries should foster a new security concept featuring mutual
trust, mutual benefit, equality and cooperation and fully respect the
diversity of world civilisations, and should seek consensus through
dialogue, co-operation through consultation and development through
exchanges.
It is imperative to work towards stability and development of the
developing nations. World peace hinges on stability of the developing
nations, and global prosperity rests, on growth of the developing
nations. Complicated as they are, many of the issues today may have
their roots found in development. Development should be the top priority
of governments of all developing nations in their efforts to govern and
build up their countries. It is imperative to ensure a full play of the
UN’s important role in international affairs. As the most important
inter-governmental organisation in the world today, which represents the
fundamental interests of all member countries and the aspirations of all
peoples in the world, the United Nations has a lot to do and accomplish
under the new situation.
Therefore, it is our common responsibility and is in everyone’s vital
interests to strengthen its role, safeguard its authority, increase its
efficiency and promote its reform.
One of the magnificent achievements of the UN has been the
transformation that has taken place in global opinion on the
relationship that should obtain between the governing and the governed,
between the government and the citizen.
It was on the basis of the moral authority of the General Assembly’s
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the determined endeavours of
the Commission on Human Rights, that this transformation was achieved.
The dignity of the individual has now, largely as a result of United
Nations leadership in the field of human rights, been placed, as it
should be, amongst the primary priorities of national and international
attention.
The Universal Declaration on Human Rights is not limited in scope to
ensuring the observance of human rights by Governments alone.
The LTTE violated every norm of Human Rights. The Government
protected the rights of the people and it was in the process of this
humanitarian operation that accidentally there were victims.
The Declaration has a far wider purpose: the observance of human
rights by all governmental and non-governmental alike.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration, which requires that everyone
has the right to life; and the provisions of article 30 of the
Declaration prescribes that: “Nothing in this Declaration may be
interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to
engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of
any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein”.
An act of terrorism by a non-governmental entity against civilians is
surely a violation of the human rights of its victims and, surely, a
crime against humanity as well.
We know the horrific consequences of terrorism: the horror; the
thousands of unsuspecting innocent lives lost or maimed, the thousands
of families then left to grieve; the countless personal tragedies that
terrorism leaves.
The horrors of Terrorism has devastated the country and have cast a
heavy burden on successive Governments and the Nation including all of
us and on humanity as a whole. There are also the larger disruptions of
national stability and order as well: of the economy and the customary
ways of life.
We remember the bombing of the Central Bank, the adjacent Buildings,
the Temple of the Tooth Relic and other Temples, the buses and trains in
Sri Lanka where numerous people of all communities were killed, injured,
the numerous innocent civilians who were killed and each of us would
have a story to tell about the injuries sustained or the deaths of our
loved ones.
The assassination of President Premadasa, Indian Prime Minister Rajiv
Gandhi, Presidential Candidate Gamini Dissanayake, Cabinet Minister
Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, Dr.Neelan Tiruchelvam and Foreign Minister
Lakshman Kadirgamar, the bombing of the Central Bank, the bombing of the
Airbase in Anuradhapura, the bombing of the Sacred tooth relic-Dalada
Maligawa, Arantalawa massacre, are SOME AMONGST THOUSANDS OF VICTIMS OF
THE LTTE.
However, during the 30 years of Tamil Terrorism not one Tamil
Terrorist Leader was killed by the Terrorists. This reveals that there
was conspiracy between the Eelam Militant Groups who conveniently
registered their organisations in the same name of their militant Groups
as Political Parties but recent history and present observation reveals
to us they never changed their attitudes.
They convinced those around them that they hated the LTTE and even
had suicide cadres to display attempted assassinations. All Tamil
Militants have terrorised their own people. They never changed – They
earned money and still are marketing the ultimate objectives of
Terrorism by slandering the Government. We will always be affected by
the memories of the damage caused by the Terrorists- we shall carry with
us for as long as we live.
The Terrorism of the eleventh of September, in the USA gave rise to a
“coming-together” of the people, in the finest traditions of humanity.
On the twelfth of September, the Security Council and the General
Assembly convened to express: their collective condolences; an
unqualified condemnation of the terrorism: a determination that those
responsible should not go unpunished; and firm concurrence that
terrorism threatened the foundations of human society and order and
would need to be, and must be, globally removed.
Saved the Tamils
We have to revive and resuscitate the morale of the people affected
by the war, and their relatives all over. President Mahinda Rajapaksa
has done more than the UNHRC towards the people of Sri Lanka. The UNHRC
assisted the Government with the IDP’s and has no jurisdiction to
question the Government. So, instead of talking about the unfortunate
dead, let us help the people who are in the process of being settled.
Let us get together and support them. The Government is doing everything
possible to help them. Let us hope that such a deep sense of the
“togetherness” of all of humanity will continue to be pervasive.
Terrorism is, sadly, very familiar to Sri Lanka. We, in Sri Lanka
know terrorism, unfortunately, only too well. We have shown that we
could eradicate it but the process is not over. Have we eradicated
Terrorism or the LTTE? Were all these terrorist activities carried out
by the LTTE alone or was there a conspiracy between the other Tamil
militant groups who pay lip service to democracy? The US State
Department Report on Human Rights 2008 suggests that a great number of
Tamil militants in Colombo and beyond have been responsible for
abductions, extortions and murders. This has been endorsed by the LLRC
Report.
Lakshman Kadirgamar is remembered to have said “A criminal
organisation – whether involved in rebellion against a State or not –
must depend for its sustenance outside the law. For its massive
operations and massive weaponry, massive collections of funds are
continually required. As funds available for criminal activities within
a State, especially a developing State, are inevitably small, and the
monitoring of their collection and disbursement relatively simple, fund
collection for such activities is carried out abroad – through
international criminal networks, of course – and also, as in all
criminal enterprises, through knowing or unknowing front organisations
or other entities that now proliferate in many forms, in many countries
– often in the guise, sadly, of charitable groups or groups ostensibly
concerned with human rights, ethnic, cultural or social matters….. The
many disparate forces for international terrorism do not come together
in one monolithic whole. They are variously interconnected in numerous
ways and their international networks are extensive.
They are mutually supportive and communicate through the global
underworld of crime when special missions are afoot. If international
terrorism is to be ever removed from our midst, we must begin with the
recognition that international terrorism is a form of global
criminality.
We must not let ourselves be deceived by the artfully crafted cloaks
of false pretensions. It is the method of terrorism as in the murder of
innocent civilians and the defiance of the sanctity of life – that
defines terrorism.”
We should therefore not be surprised that allegations of civilian
casualty in the present times generates from certain corporate interests
involved in international terrorism and their complex trade
beneficiaries.
President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as the Commander in Chief of the Armed
Forces took a patriotic and bold decision as he is morally and legally
bound to protect the nation from all forms of terror. Military
intervention was a necessity in the interests of the nation.
Rohitha Bogollagama who functioned as the Foreign Minister during the
war went through great pains to prevent the international community from
interfering with the war and it was then that President Mahinda
Rajapaksa was able to direct the Army to go ahead with their assertive,
offensive and defensive action which led to the victory over the LTTE.
We have from time to time seen the invitations extended to former
terrorists to join the democratic scheme but recent history reveals that
they have not changed at all.
Instead they have been allowed to legalise their Militant Terrorist
Groups as legitimate Political Parties and they enjoy continuing their
criminal activities with ease enjoying the perks of a democratic society
as a democratic party with State protection which undermines the very
norms of democracy.
Over thirty years or more we have not been able to solve this
problem. We require a balance between the need to achieve a military
victory and the needs of humanity. In this sense, necessity has been
viewed as a limitation to unbridled barbarity.
The application of the doctrine of military necessity makes use of
the principle of proportionality as a mechanism for determining the
positioning of a fulcrum between these competing poles.
Using proportionality thus gives effect to the recognition that the
choice of methods and means of conducting war or armed conflict are not
unlimited.
The means and methods of conducting war operate to achieve a
particular military objective, which consequently assists in achieving a
larger political objective.
While necessity might determine the legitimacy of the armed attack,
proportionality determines the amount of force that might be used. In a
sense, necessity operates at a macro level, while international
humanitarian law operates at a micro level, though both might lie on the
same continuum given the difficulties in the transition.
This difficulty is most apparent when the principles of necessity and
proportionality have been incorporated into conventional international
law, particularly international humanitarian conventions.
The development of these conventions and the application of these
principles require some consideration if one is to arrive at an
understanding of their application in a modern armed conflict. The
distinction in the Sri Lanka situation is that it is within our
territory.
Military necessity has been described as “a basic principle of the
law of war, so basic, indeed, that without it there could be no law of
war at all.” the acceptance that, while the object of warfare is to
achieve the submission of the enemy, which may require the disabling of
as many enemy combatants as possible, this should only be achieved in a
manner that does not cause any unnecessary suffering or damage. This
limitation to the means of waging war is not, however, necessarily
humanitarian in nature, and much of the early restraints were based on
economic, political, and military considerations.
However, the need for a balance between the considerations of
humanity and the military actions necessary to win a war is regarded as
defining the very nature of international humanitarian law, making
military necessity a central principle in this balance.
Military necessity admits of all direct destruction of life or limb
of armed enemies, and of other persons whose destruction is incidentally
unavoidable in the armed contests of the war; it allows of the capturing
of every armed enemy, and every enemy of importance or of peculiar
danger to the captor; it allows of all destruction of property, and
obstruction of the ways and channels of traffic, travel, or
communication, and of all withholding of sustenance or means of life
from the enemy;
The ‘principle of distinction’ is fundamental to humanitarian law,
but its precise content varies according to the kind of conflict. In
national liberation struggles — and international armed conflicts — the
distinction is between ‘civilians’ and ‘combatants.’ Combatants have no
right to life under humanitarian law. Every individual is classified as
either a combatant or as a kind of protected person, such as a prisoner
of war (a captured combatant) or a civilian.
An individual’s rights change when his classification changes.
A civilian has the right not to be targeted for attack and the right
to receive some protection from attack. If the civilian joins the armed
militants, he exchanges the rights of a civilian for the rights of a
combatant. A combatant has the right to take part in hostilities.
We look for diplomacy. But there is no diplomacy with some of those
opposed to us. We do not consider them opponents but they oppose every
conceivable move we make to develop the country.
Sometimes, there is no compromise with such people, no meeting of
minds – no point of understanding – so we would have a just choice
-defeat it or be defeated by it. This is where there was a necessity for
military intervention. We learnt that however much we strive for peace,
we need a strong defence capability where a peaceful approach fails.
Whatever the dangers of the action we take, the dangers of inaction are
far greater.
Laws will have to be changed not to deny the basic liberties but to
prevent their abuse and protect the most basic liberty of all – freedom
from terror. The people are terrorised by certain vested interests in
their vile pursuits for power committing crimes and targeting a reflex
scenario as if the Government was responsible.
We are a community of people, whose self-interest and mutual interest
at crucial points merge and that it is through a sense of justice that
community is born and nurtured. This is the moment to bring the faiths
closer together in understanding of our common values and heritage a
source of unity and strength.
We must not permit a contaminated moral environment. Let us not
negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. We cannot
restore peace unless we can find some way to bring the nation close
together. We must be Patriotic.
We must uphold and defend the Constitution and the Head of State-the
President. We owe allegiance to the President and the Constitution as
Citizens of Sri Lanka.
We must uphold the norms of the Constitution apprehend and prosecute
those who terrorise us by their actions and threats, then economic
prosperity will follow suit. Our destiny lies in our hands.
WE SHALL OVERCOME
“Ye shall overcome if ye faint not”, derived from Galatians 6:9: “And
let us not be weary in doing good, for in due season we shall reap, if
we faint not.” It read:
The world is one great battlefieldwith forces all arrayed.If in my
heart I do not yield,I’ll overcome some day.
The Tamils in Sri Lanka were never treated like the Black people in
the US.
It was the most powerful song of the 20th century. It started out in
church pews and picket lines, inspired one of the greatest freedom
movements in US history, and went on to topple governments and bring
about reform all over the world. Word for word, the short, simple lyrics
of “We Shall Overcome” might be some of the most influential words in
the English language.
“We Shall Overcome” has its roots in African-American hymns from the
early 20th century, and was first used as a protest song in 1945, when
striking tobacco workers in Charleston, S.C., sang it on their picket
line. By the 1950s, the song had been discovered by the young activists
of the African-American civil rights movement, and it quickly became the
movement’s unofficial anthem. Its verses were sung on protest marches
and in sit-ins, through clouds of tear gas and under rows of police
batons, and it brought courage and comfort to bruised, frightened
activists as they waited in jail cells, wondering if they would survive
the night. When the long years of struggle ended and President Lyndon
Johnson vowed to fight for voting rights for all Americans, he included
a final promise: “We shall overcome.”
In the decades since, the song has circled the globe and has been
embraced by civil rights and pro-democracy movements in dozens of
nations worldwide. From Northern Ireland to Eastern Europe, from Berlin
to Beijing, and from South Africa to South America, its message of
solidarity and hope has been sung in dozens of languages, in
presidential palaces and in dark prisons, and it continues to lend its
strength to all people struggling to be free.
As you listen to “We Shall Overcome,” think about the reasons it has
brought strength and support to so many people for so many years.
And remember that someone, somewhere, is singing it right now.
The writer has sung this song together with others to bring peace to
Sri Lanka and for the continuous victory of President Mahinda Rajapaksa
and the words of the song are as follows:
We shall overcome, we shall overcome
We shall overcome some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall overcome some day
The Lord will see us through, the Lord will see us through
The lord will see us through some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
The Lord will see us some day
We’re on to victory, we’re on to victory
We’re on to victory some dayOh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We’re on to victory some day
We’ll walk hand in hand, we’ll walk hand in hand
We’ll walk hand in hand some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We’ll walk hand in hand some day
We are not afraid, we are not afraid
We are not afraid today
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We are not afraid today The truth shall make us free, the truth shall
make us free
The truth shall make us free some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
The truth shall make us free some day
We shall live in peace, we shall live in peace
We shall live in peace some day
Oh, deep in my heart, I do believe
We shall live in peace some day. |
