In the law enforcement area, the vacuum that will be created by the removal of the independent character of the judges will be filled by the Ministry of Defence

The paramilitary and the intelligence services will play the role of accusers, judges and executioners.

Basil Fernando
The impeachment is not about the individual that is Shriyani Bandaranayake, the Chief Justice. The real issue is about ending the position of the judiciary as a separate branch of the state.

What is now being faced is a momentous transformation of the very structure of governance in Sri Lanka. It is the final completion of the objective of the 1978 Constitution and of the 18th Amendment to that same Constitution.

The process that is now being completed has been pursued for several years through many important events. A brief history of this change is as follows:

Commonwealth concerned over Lanka's move to impeach CJ

Commonwealth Secretary-General has expressed concern over the recent move by the Sri Lankan Parliament to impeach the country's Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake.

"The Commonwealth's principal consideration is that the provisions of Sri Lanka's constitution are upheld with regards to the removal of judges, respecting the independence of the judiciary," Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma said in a statement yesterday.

What if the UN Had Spoken Out on Sri Lanka?

..detained in sub-standard internment camps, paid for and built by the United Nations and its donors Screen shot:Aljazeera)

Frances Harrison
If today the United Nations announced that it had received unconfirmed reports of 50,000 casualties in a war off limits to journalists - wouldn't the world take notice and try and stop the killings? We now know the UN system had this information in 2009 about Sri Lanka and suppressed it. We know this because of an internal review, commissioned by the UN Secretary General, Ban ki Moon.

Open letter to UNP & TNA: Demand details of war casualties during 2008 August to 2009 May from UNSG

Killed in Vanni 2009 ( screen shot -Aljazeera)

To Leaders of the UNP and the TNA
Ranil Wickramasinghe, MP (Leader of the Opposition),/ R. Sampanthan, MP

As you by now are aware, the "Report of the Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka" date lined November 2012 and released on 14 November, 2012, now accepts the UN has failed in its duty and responsibility, to provide humanitarian access for the UN staff to the people trapped within the conflict zone in the Vanni, the physical delivery of assistance into the conflict zone, and the freedom of movement for populations to reach assistance, all fundamental to the protection of life.

Tamils seek probe after U.N. faults itself in Sri Lanka war report

A photo from the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense is said to show troops walking among debris inside the war zone as they evacuate Tamil civilians from the area around the city of Mullaittivu. (Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense / AFP / May 17, 2009)

Mark Magnier

NEW DELHI -- A major Tamil opposition party in Sri Lanka called Thursday for an international investigation after a U.N. report criticized the international body's own failure to protect civilians during the waning days of a brutal war in 2009.

Following report on activities in Sri Lanka war, Ban determined to strengthen UN responses to crises

Ban Ki-moon receives Independent Review Panel on Sri Lanka report from ASG Charles Petrie.
UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe

“The United Nations system failed to meet its responsibilities,” Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today as he released a United Nations report looking into the world body’s actions during the final months of the 2009 war in Sri Lanka and its aftermath.

Sri Lanka: UPR 2012 fails to advance human rights agenda

B. Skanthakumar
The Sri Lankan government rejected almost half of the recommendations received in Geneva from other UN member states during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of its human rights obligations on 1 November 2012.

Among the recommendations not acceptable to the government are[1]: right to information legislation; country visit by the UN independent expert on freedom of opinion and expression; witness and victim protection legislation; removing humanitarian and NGO affairs from the Defence Ministry; publishing the names and places of detention of detainees; reducing the military role in civilian affairs in the North; punishing those responsible for recruitment of child soldiers; protecting labour and other human rights of domestic workers; abolishing the death penalty; decriminalising same-sex relationships; criminalising and punishing enforced disappearances; regular visits by members of the UN Committee Against Torture to detention centres; accepting jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court with respect to crimes against humanity; and an independent investigation into the August 2006 killing of 17 humanitarian workers in Mutur.

Guarantee the respect of the judiciary and defend their independence; Withdraw the impeachment - appeal by 59 academics

Appeal to the Executive and the Legislature to Guarantee Respect for the Judiciary and the CJ and to Guarantee the Independence of the Judiciary

The varied types of attacks on the judiciary in Sri Lanka have risen to alarming proportions over the last few weeks and suggest that the very institution of the judiciary is under serious threat in the country. We the undersigned are extremely disturbed by these developments and would like to request that both the Executive and Legislative arms of the state fulfil their duty and guarantee the security and independence of the judiciary.

Sri Lanka:Decision-making across the UN was dominated by a culture of trade-offs – from the ground to UN headquarters

''Coming at the beginning of his second term, the Secretary-General’s decision to commission an internal review is an extremely courageous step. The Panel believes that the report’s findings and recommendations provide an urgent and compelling platform for action. The UN’s failure to adequately respond to the events in Sri Lanka should not happen again. When confronted by similar situations, the UN should be able to meet a much higher standard in fulfilling its protection and humanitarian responsibilities. In support of this effort, the Panel strongly urges that its report be made public.'' 
Executive Summary: Assessment of the UN’s Actions in Sri Lanka

Foreign affairs Select Committee: Cameron shouldn't attend CHOGM in Sri Lanka' bec of HR violations

 Foreign Affairs Committee publishes report on the role and future of the Commonwealth
''The report concludes that continuing evidence of serious human rights abuses in Sri Lanka shows that the Commonwealth’s decision to hold the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo was “wrong”. The Committee urges the Prime Minister to state publicly his unwillingness to attend the Colombo meeting unless he receives “convincing and independently-verified evidence of substantial and sustainable improvements in human and political rights in Sri Lanka.''

15 November 2012

UN: Act on Failings in Sri Lanka and appoint Independent Inquiry Into Violations by Government and Tamil Tigers

LTTE child solders: It forced thousands of children to join its ranks ( AI campaign photo)

Report of the UN Secretary-General's Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka

The UN internal review identifies the tragic mistakes that led the UN to fail in its most basic obligations to civilians in Sri Lanka. It is a call to action and reform for the entire UN system. While Ban deserves credit for starting a process he knew could tarnish his office, he will now be judged on his willingness to implement the report’s recommendations and push for justice for Sri Lanka’s victims. - Philippe Bolopion, UN director HRW

UN Internal Review: UN failure and Sri Lanka's way forward

Govt sponsored anti UN protest in Colombo, Feb 2012 ( photo: Reuters)

There can be no lasting peace and stability without dealing with the most serious past violations and without a political response to the aspirations of Sri Lanka’s communities. The UN cannot fulfil its post-conflict and development responsibilities in Sri Lanka without addressing these fundamental concerns; and the UN should continue to support implementation of the recommendations of the Panel of Experts on Accountability
Read the full report here

Sri Lanka: How UN failed during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict

The UN failed to protect civilians during Sri Lanka’s armed conflict according its own report, released today, prompting Amnesty International to renew its call for an independent investigation into alleged war crimes by the Sri Lankan army and the Tamil Tigers (LTTE).
The Report of the UN Secretary-General’s Internal Review Panel on United Nations Action in Sri Lanka, submitted to Ban Ki-moon and made public today, offers a strong indictment of the UN’s response to Sri Lanka’s armed conflict.

This Sri Lanka massacre shows UN has not learned from its failures in Rwanda

Isabel Hilton
The UN will never be a perfect  organisation: nothing so ambitious could be, and the organisation will tend to be blamed for the failures of its member states. But it has advanced many fundamental humanitarian principles, of which the responsibility to protect must count as one of the most important. Nothing can bring back the estimated 30,000 civilians who died in 2009 in the closing months of the war in Sri Lanka, but if the UN is to learn from its shocking failure to protect those civilians it must do more than mouth regrets and resolutions.

Failure of UN in Sri Lanka war: Ban Ki-Moon to appoint a senior team to consider recommendations and advise way forward

After the war victory:The destruction

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

New York, 14 November 2012

Statement of the Secretary-General on Internal Review Panel Report on Sri Lanka

The conduct of the final months of the war in Sri Lanka in 2009 generated profound concerns about alleged violations of international human rights and humanitarian law. In 2010, following an agreement with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, I established a Panel of Experts to advise me on measures to advance accountability. 

Sri Lanka: UN expert concerned about reprisals against judges urges reconsideration of Chief Justice’s impeachment

Gabriela Knaul,Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers

GENEVA (14 November 2012) - The United Nations Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul, today expressed serious concerns about reported intimidation and attacks against judges and judicial officers, and warned that they might form part of a pattern of attacks, threats, reprisals and interference in the independence of the justice system in Sri Lanka.

The Government is impatient to convey a different message to the Judiciary: “You are either with us; or against us”

Impeachment or inquisition of CJ? (Editorial, Sunday Times)
At least this time, the Government is truthful about it; it has made it known that the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice tabled in Parliament this week in what was clearly an ‘indecent hurry’, is a ‘political decision’.
That such step would be taken as revenge for scuttling the Divineguma Bill was talked about for some time. The Supreme Court holding certain provisions of the Bill as being unconstitutional was taken as an affront to the Government. But the law is the law, and the Constitution the supreme law. The Supreme Court is not there to rubber stamp all Bills coming its way, though its tough stance in recent times is not without more than a murmur at Hulftsdorp Hill and elsewhere in the country.

Impeachment:Regime’s most dangerous effort to stifle dissent, destroy independence of judiciary and undermine implementation of 13A - CPA

Press Release on the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) expresses grave concern over the initiation of impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake. A number of reports in the press reveal that several charges against her have now been placed before Parliament in the form of a Resolution presented to the Speaker. The context within which these proceedings have been instituted, the procedure established by Parliament for impeachment hearings in Standing Order 78A, and the content of a number of charges against the Chief Justice are deeply troubling.

Is Ban's legacy tarnished by Sri Lanka?

Ban meeting Rajapaksha in May 2009

Colum Lynch
Ban Ki-moon added his voice today to the rising chorus of world leaders denouncing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's brutal repression of civilians and his failure to listen to his people's demands for democratic change.

"I am gravely concerned about Syria," Ban said in speech this afternoon at Yale University. "Each day in Syria brings new reports of appalling violations of human rights and tragic suffering."

India failed to protect Tamils: 'From Blood on the hands' to 'Blood money'

Hospital in Puthukkudiyiruppu,in Feb 2009 - AP photo

M.G. Devasahayam, Chennai.
C.    Why did India fail?
At the height of SL genocide when the 2009 Parliament election campaign was peaking in Tamil Nadu AIADMK leader, J Jayalalithaa, pompously declared: “If a government that listens to me is formed at the Centre, I will take action for the dispatch of the Indian army to the island nation and create a separate Tamil Eelam.” Professor Anbazhagan, General Secretary of DMK retorted: “Tamils are being destroyed in Sri Lanka. The place is full of widows who have lost their husbands, widowers who have lost their wives, and people who have lost their arms and legs. This has been going on for a long time. Sinhalas are making Tamils into heaps of corpses. But theirs and ours are different countries. The laws of that land are different. We cannot intervene”.

UN 'failed Sri Lanka civilians', says internal probe

 

Hundreds of thousands of Tamils ended up trapped in a tiny strip of land

 Lyse Doucet, Chief International Correspondent, BBC News 

The United Nations failed in its mandate to protect civilians in the last months of Sri Lanka's bloody civil war, a leaked draft of a highly critical internal UN report says.

"Events in Sri Lanka mark a grave failure of the UN," it concludes.

True version of the Prison massacre : Jailor , guards write to the superiors on how prisoners were killed

an injured  remand prison ( photo: Lanka e News)

(Lanka-e-News)The Prison officers have written anonymous letters to the Prisons Commissioner and the IGP describing how the STF officers arrived and took four prisoners out, handcuffed and killed them by shooting. These are premeditated and planned murders , they have added.

Sri Lankan bishops call on the government to respect courts' independence

(AsiaNews) - The independence of Sri Lanka's justice system is under threat, this according to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL), following the parliament's decision to impeach Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake (pictured), the first woman to hold that post.

The motion to impeach the chief judge was sponsored by the ruling United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA) coalition, and signed by 117 Members of Parliament. The speaker of the house accepted it.

Sri Lanka: Ethical Tourism Campaign

SL military prepare for a war parade ( Photo:AP)

This week, the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice (of which I am a co-director) launches a campaign aimed at promoting ethical tourism in Sri Lanka. The lobby group has recently uncovered evidence that a range of British tour operators are offering holiday packages that commercially benefit alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses.

Without proper reason the Ministry for Human Rights was abolished: the pledges made at UPR 2008 fell by way side - Rajiva Wijesinha

Minister Samarasinhghe - no HR ministry

The Universal Periodic Review has come, and gone, and as usual there seems to be general satisfaction in Sri Lanka as to how it went. I have no doubt that the generally excellent team sent from Sri Lanka performed well, and gave sensible answers to the questions raised.

What is sad, though, is that the Review seems to have become an end in itself. Some of the blame for this should go to a few organizations who see this as a chance to attack Sri Lanka, whereas the original conception of the UPR was that it would provide an opportunity for all stakeholders to work together to improve the Human Rights situation in the country under review.