We, the British Tamils Forum (BTF), sincerely thank the High Commissioner for Human Rights HE Mr Volker Turk for visiting Sri Lanka, visiting the mass graves and meeting the families of the victims, civil society, human rights defenders and Tamil National Political leaders.
It is regrettable when the genocidal violence climaxed in 2009 against the Tamil population in Sri Lanka, the UN General Assembly, the Security Council, and the Human Rights Council (UNHRC) collectively failed at least to convene a single session to address or act on the grave violations committed by the Sri Lankan state and its security forces at that time. This historic failure to act in a timely manner not only denied justice to victims but also set a precedent for the unscrupulous nations to follow, jeopardising the world’s peace and security.
The UN thus has a great responsibility to rectify its past ignorance by taking appropriate actions to negate the Sri Lankan Bad Blueprint rather than promoting ruthless nations like Sri Lanka.
The 2015 OISL Report (OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka) recommended a hybrid accountability mechanism due to the lack of trust in the domestic system as a compromise formula.
Following this, in 2015, the Sri Lankan government strategically maneuvered international diplomacy by agreeing to a resolution co-sponsored at the UNHRC, which included 25 key commitments—among them, the establishment of a hybrid tribunal with international participation and legal reforms allowing accountability for command responsibility and genocidal crimes. However, this cooperation proved illusory. Successive Sri Lankan administrations, having bought time and international goodwill, have systematically derailed, delayed, and ultimately abandoned the justice process—exposing the limits of soft diplomacy without enforceable accountability.
In succinct, the OISL 2015 Report’s recommendation was cynically used by the Sri Lankan state to feign compliance while ensuring impunity prevailed.
Today, the newly elected NPP (JVP-led) government appears poised to adopt the same playbook, using more sophisticated tactics: publicly cooperating, but for diluting international scrutiny, steering UN resolutions to their advantage, and ultimately stalling any meaningful criminal justice process.
The UN must therefore have to be vigilant for not exerting its enormous effort, time and money in great peril of sabotaging justice and accountability that Tamil people entrusted that the UN would lead based on facts and figures that it collected in compliance to the Resolutions 46/1, 51/1 and 57/1.
Among many things that the High Commissioner had stated in OHCHR’s Report A/HRC/57/19 dated 27 august 2024, the High Commissioner’s recommendations of paras 54 and 64 are particularly drawn to attention in retrospect.
- The international legal system offers further opportunities, including through the inter-State complaint mechanisms of treaty bodies, and/or consideration of proceedings before the International Court of Justice, where provided for by relevant human rights treaties. Efforts have been undertaken by CSO to request the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), to the extent possible, to exercise jurisdiction over relevant crimes committed in Sri Lanka. The Rome Statute provides opportunities for States to activate the ICC’s jurisdiction, including through the UN Security Council formally referring a situation to it.
- Following the elections, the newly elected Government should – as a matter of urgency – pursue an inclusive national vision for Sri Lanka that addresses the root causes of the conflict and undertakes fundamental constitutional and institutional reforms needed to strengthen democracy and devolution of political authority and advance accountability and reconciliation.
In the meantime, BTF would like to present a few salient points of facts of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP); President elect — challenge faced by Tamil nation.; to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mr Volker Turk’s attention.
- Vehemently opposed the Norwegian led international peace process and ceasefire agreement of 2002 and conducted many ethnically charged campaigns.
- Mobilised the rural mass and recruited 1000s of Sinhala youths to join the security forces in 2002 – 2006. Many of the middle level or senior commanders in the security forces in the armed forces were recruited by the JVP. They were involved in many atrocity crimes perpetrated against the Tamils.
- Vehemently opposed a ceasefire in 2009 when the genocidal massacre was at its peak.
- Opposed an arrangement for post tsunami rehabilitation tasks (Post Tsunami Operational Management Structure – PTOMS) and filed a case against the PTOMS and stopped the operation of the humanitarian project for the Tsunami victims.
- Opposed the merger of the northern and eastern province and never accepted any power sharing arrangement or any form of devolution. Party to challenging the merger of the North and East before the Supreme Court — successfully.
- Even during his campaign in 2024, at a meeting in Jaffna, he refused to propose a political solution with substantial power sharing for the ongoing conflict.
Additionally, the JVP has three clear political positions:
- Unitary State — with no devolution of the powers of Parliament.
- Refusal to recognise the traditional homeland of the Tamils.
- Oppose any form of international action to establish an international criminal justice mechanism for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide perpetrated against Tamils.
For the victims’ communities, Tamil civil society, Tamil national political parties, and the global Tamil diaspora, the demand is clear and unwavering: only an independent international criminal justice mechanism—free from Sri Lankan state interference—can meaningfully address this 75-year history of ethnic violence, systemic discrimination, and genocide.
If that occurs, the credibility of the UN system and the international community’s commitment to justice will prevail.
By being stern on Sri Lanka in its ethos, the UN can not only redeem its past failures but can also establish a global precedent for responding to state-led atrocities. Given the current global conflicts, if there is any possibility of setting up a successful UN model on the application of international law & justice, Sri Lanka is the only country turning from a bad model to a role model and a deterrence.
Such an action would send a powerful message to rogue regimes, following the prototype of Sri Lanka’s Bad Model, around the world.
The culture of impunity must be forfeited.
The UN’s Failure in Sri Lanka – A Call for Genuine International Justice
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