22st Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council 4 March 2013 Geneva

Item 2 Annual Report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Pasumai Thaayagam Presenter: Dhamayanthi Rajendra Mr. Vice President & Madam High Commissioner The High Commissioners report recognizes that the failure of the international community and the UN to understand and address the causes of widespread violence and conflict in certain countries, such as in Syria and Mali, leads to prolonged suffering for those caught in such violence, and widespread impunity. We are encouraged by the High Commissioners focus on combating impunity. Combating impunity is quintessential to sustainable peace. We applaud the increasing use of commissions of inquiry and fact-finding missions to investigate allegations of serious violations. The allegations made against the Syrian regime resonate with those allegations of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law in Sri Lanka at the end of its civil war, including extrajudicial killings, sexual violence against prisoners by the armed forces, and the shelling of hospitals and no fire zones. All such egregious acts require the full engagement of the Council, and require the establishment of independent international investigations. The Council has done so, for example, in Syria and Libya in 2011. We urge the Council at this session to establish a commission of inquiry to investigate the allegations of serious violations of human rights and humanitarian law that occurred in Sri Lanka at the end of the civil war. Failure to do so will encourage the cycle of impunity that exists in Sri Lanka and elsewhere. Four years since the war, the Governments domestic process has not addressed accountability in good faith, as outlined under the LLRC framework and there is strong historical evidence it has no intention of doing so. The National Plan of Action entrusts the very agencies subject to investigation with implementing the

LLRC recommendations, hence its no surprise a military court of inquiry would refute the targeting and killing of civilians1. A domestic process simply does not work because Sri Lanka is not capable of investigating itself. Any action by the Council that falls short of a credible international investigation will lead to irrevocable damage being inflicted on the Tamil population. Thank you Mr. Vice President & Madam High Commissioner