Senate debates

Tuesday, 25 March 2014

Adjournment

Sri Lanka: Human Rights

9:07 pm

Photo of Lisa SinghLisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | | Hansard source

This week the eyes of the international community are turned to the issue of human rights in Sri Lanka and the continuing efforts to restore its democracy, rebuild its economy and reconcile the parties to the debilitating conflict that was waged across the island for more than a quarter century.

In Geneva on Wednesday, 26 March the United Nations Human Rights Council will consider a motion on the Sri Lankan civil war. The United States and the United Kingdom, together with others committed to transparency and reconciliation in Sri Lanka, have sponsored a motion at the council calling for an inquiry into the commission of war crimes and humanitarian abuses in the final stages of the war. This is the third motion on this issue in the last three years, with the international community growing more and more concerned about the need to address allegations of serious offences by both sides.

In 2012 and 2013 Australia supported the council's resolutions which urged the Sri Lankan government to adopt the findings and recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, recommendations that included a credible investigation into extrajudicial killings and disappearances; demilitarisation of the north; land dispute resolution mechanisms; reviewing detention policies; strengthening civil institutions; finalising provincial devolution; and freedom of expression and rule of law reforms. These concerns have been reinforced by statements from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, who, after a visit last year, has called for a full, transparent and impartial investigation into the conflict that examines violations by both sides.

The importance of this issue has been raised in a letter to the Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, on Monday, 24 March from a group of eminent Australians, including Malcolm Fraser, Gareth Evans, former NSW Liberal Attorney General John Dowd, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Professor Gordon Weiss, and Owen Harries, former Australian Ambassador to UNESCO. The letter calls for Australia to use its position to support the UN Human Rights Council motion and constructively engage with the Sri Lankan government and the international community on the issue of human rights and the international independent inquiry.

The challenges of building peace in a country whose foundations have been damaged by decades of violence are immense, and all the courage Sri Lanka's people showed in enduring one of the world's longest and most brutal civil wars will be needed to face these challenges. In doing this, they will need assistance from an international community ready to engage with, discuss and support them in dealing with the difficulties and complexities of a post-conflict society.

The position of Australia is being watched closely. We are a nation that has, historically, advocated the value of human rights at a global level, and we supported the 2012 and 2013 Human Rights Council resolutions. We are also a neighbour of Sri Lanka across the Indian Ocean and a destination country for those fleeing repression within its borders. Thus far, Australia has not added its name to the motion as a sponsor, and its lack of action on the issue has yet to be explained. Important allies, such as the US and UK governments, among others, may well ask why Australia has failed so far to support their efforts to ensure there is a credible investigative process put in place. In fact I recognise the lead that both the US and UK governments have taken in this particular motion being brought forward to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

A motion calling for Australian support of the motion before the Human Rights Council was debated in the other place on Monday, 24 March, moved by the shadow minister for foreign affairs, and I recognise the work of Tanya Plibersek both inside and outside the parliament in the formulation and debate on this issue. It noted that the high commissioner had recognised the progress made by the Sri Lankan government since 2009 in relation to de-mining, resettlement and reconstruction, and rehabilitation. Alongside physical rebuilding, however, there must be national mechanisms to establish truth and achieve justice in order to achieve real reconciliation and a lasting peace.

I commend the substance of this motion that has been put forward by the UK and US governments, calling for an international inquiry into human rights violations in the Sri Lankan war, taking into account the efforts that have already been made and the reports into this topic that have been undertaken, including the Sri Lankan government's own LLRC report.

In situations where there has been widespread and serious abuse of human rights during and around wartime, the international community has played an essential role in the investigation and prosecution of crime in order for the truth to be told and justice to be done, and to open up the possibility of reconciliation between the parties to the conflict. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia are examples where the prosecution, judges, courts and infrastructure necessary to investigate and administer justice around genocide and war crimes have been drawn from the broader global community.

Despite the Australian government's position thus far to not sponsor the motion in Geneva, Australian civil society has been active. The Public Interest Advocacy Centre, through its ICEP project, has undertaken a forensic analysis of the alleged crimes and the conduct of all parties to the conflict in its report Island of impunity? The Human Rights Law Centre has also addressed issues of war crimes and breaches of humanitarian and human rights law

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have also provided important information on the situation.

The PIAC report identifies a number of key areas to which an inquiry could be addressed and which would form the basis for any prosecution for war crimes or breaches of humanitarian law, including the following findings: it is 'reasonable to conclude' that security forces used indiscriminate area bombardment as a means of attacking the no-fire zones, which were safe areas densely populated with civilians. Intentionally or recklessly attacking civilians is a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The report found:

There are reasonable grounds to suspect that, by shooting civilians who were attempting to escape the conflict zone, LTTE members committed murder both as a war crime and crime against humanity, and may have also committed the war crime of cruel treatment and/or the crime against humanity of inhumane acts.

It is in Australia's interests to support reconciliation, openness and justice in Sri Lanka. Having a secure and democratic neighbour in the Indian Ocean that protects its citizens and has resolved its internal conflicts is essential for the greater security of our region. It also works to reduce the levels of persecution and abuse that force asylum seekers to take dangerous voyages by sea to seek protection elsewhere, including in Australia. But before this can be achieved the international community needs to help Sri Lanka address the profound difficulties of postwar reconciliation and the truth and justice that are essential to any real dialogue between the groups. Australia should assist Sri Lanka by supporting a credible process that can help bring it about. That is exactly what the UN Human Rights Council motion that is being debated in Geneva, to be voted on within the next 24 to 48 hours, is all about. I urge the Australian government to vote with the UK and the US in support of this motion.