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Say No to Sri Lanka's Bid for UN Rights Council Seat
Joint NGO Letter to Member States NGOs for an Effective Human Rights Councilwww.hrw.org/effectiveHRC/SriLanka 6 May 2008 Your Excellency, We are a coalition of nongovernmental organizations from all parts of the world. We write to urge that your government not vote for Sri Lanka for membership in the U.N. Human Rights Council in the election in the General Assembly on 21 May 2008 because of Sri Lanka’s failure to meet the Council’s membership standards. In doing so, we strongly support the position of human rights organizations from within Sri Lanka, who state that their government fails to meet the membership standards, has “presided over a grave deterioration of human rights protection” since first winning Council membership in 2006, and “has used its membership of the Human Rights Council to protect itself from scrutiny.” Their letter of 28 April 2008 is available online at http://www.cpalanka.org/research_papers/civil_society_letter_on_re%20election_of_SL_to_HRC_April%2028.pdf As you know, General Assembly (GA) resolution 60/251 requires that “members elected to the Council shall uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and “fully cooperate” with the Council. Sri Lanka falls far short of meeting these requirements. I. Sri Lanka is failing to protect human rights We recognize that that the armed separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) have long been responsible for numerous and horrific human rights abuses. However, abuses by non-state armed groups do not justify rights violations by government forces. In the last two years, Sri Lankan government forces have been directly implicated in a wide range of serious abuses of human rights, and have failed to ensure investigations and bring those responsible to justice. These include :
These problems are compounded by the authorities having failed to provide easily accessible avenues enabling victims of human rights abuses to make complaints. Extreme delays in adjudication make it near-futile to pursue such complaints, when made. The absence of a witness protection law and system has lead to the harassment and even killing of victims seeking redress and witnesses. A full list of U.N. and other reports documenting these and other abuses are posted on our coalition website at www.hrw.org/effectiveHRC/SriLanka. A government which has been proven to engage in such serious human rights violations cannot be said to be upholding the “highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights.” Based on its current record, Sri Lanka is simply not qualified for re-election to the U.N. Human Rights Council. II. Sri Lanka refuses to cooperate with the Council and U.N. human rights mechanisms Government officials have launched unacceptable and unfounded personal attacks on respected international officials who have visited Sri Lanka and raised human rights concerns. Rather than consider the recommendations made in good faith by these officials, the Sri Lankan authorities have instead chosen to question the officials’ integrity. Senior Sri Lankan officials have accused:
The Sri Lankan government has not seriously engaged the recommendation by several special procedures and by OHCHR to establish a human rights monitoring mission under U.N. auspices to document and report on violations committed by all sides to the conflict and to prevent further violations. Sri Lanka did not reply to any of the 12 questionnaires sent by special procedure mandate holders between 1/1/2004 and 31/12/2007, nor to over half of the 94 letters of allegations and urgent appeals sent by special procedures in that period. Sri Lanka has not implemented the principal recommendations of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Killings. The Special Rapporteur on Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment observed that Sri Lankan authorities impeded his fact-finding, citing “instances where detainees were hidden or brought away shortly before the Special Rapporteur arrived.” III. Don’t Vote for Sri Lanka this Year Rather than promote human rights worldwide as required of Council members by GA Resolution 60/251, Sri Lanka has sought to use its Council membership to shield itself from constructive international scrutiny. GA Resolution 60/251 requires that in voting for members of the Human Rights Council “member States shall take into account the contribution of candidates to the promotion and protection of human rights.” Council members are required to “uphold the highest standards in the promotion and protection of human rights” and to “fully cooperate with the Council.” As Sri Lanka so clearly fails to meet either of these standards, your government should withhold its support this year, and instead vote only for other candidates which do meet the standards. U.N. Members have an important choice to make in this election. To re-elect Sri Lanka based on its record of the last two years would weaken the Human Rights Council and indicate the international community is unconcerned with the grave human rights situation in Sri Lanka. To reject Sri Lanka’s candidacy at this time would show that U.N. members are serious about the membership standards they established for the Council, and bring new attention to the gross violations in Sri Lanka and hope and support to the victims of abuse. With assurances of our highest respect, Ms. Martha Meijer, Director Aim for Human Rights Enrique Bernales, Executive Director Andean Commission of Jurists Dr. Agnes Callamard, Executive Director ARTICLE 19 Michael Anthony, Program Coordinator Asian Human Rights Commission Moataz El Fegiery, Executive Director Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies Abdurashid Abdulle Abikar, Chairman Center for Youth and Democracy Gaston Chillier, Executive Director Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales Maja Daruwala, Director Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative Lorena Fries, President Corporación Humanas—Chile Ana Lucia Herrera, Director Corporación Humanas—Ecuador Robert R. LaGamma, Executive Director Council for a Community of Democracies Dokhi Fassihian, Acting Executive Director Democracy Coalition Project María Ysabel Cedano García, Director DEMUS—Estudio para la Defensa y los Derechos de la Mujer Mr. Hassan Shire Sheikh, Chairperson East and Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders Network Natalia Gherardi, Executive Director ELA - Equipo Latinoamericano de Justicia y Género Ms. Souhayr Belhassen, President Fédération Internationale des Droits de l'Homme/International Federation for Human Rights Jennifer Windsor, Executive Director Freedom House Dieudonné Zognong, President Humanus International Tolekan Ismailova, Director Human Rights Center/Citizens against Corruption Maureen Byrnes, Executive Director Human Rights First Kenneth Roth, Executive Director Human Rights Watch Deborah Muir, Project Director Asia-Pacific International Federation of Journalists—Asia-Pacific Indria Fernida, Deputy Coordinator KontraS (Commission for “the Disappeared” and Victims of Violence) Nozima Kamalova, Chairman Legal Aid Society of Uzbekistan Taufik Basari, Chairperson of the Board of Directors Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Masyarakat (Indonesian Community Legal Aid Institute) Vo Van Ai, President Quê Me: Action for Democracy in Vietnam & Vietnam Committee for Human Rights Robert Menard, General Secretary Reporters Without Borders |
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