Burundi and Sri Lanka, two test cases for the prevention of
recurring mass violations – UN expert
GENEVA (15 September 2015) – The United Nations Special
Rapporteur on transitional justice, Pablo de Greiff, today said that a
‘tradition of impunity’ seriously undermines accountability and reconciliation
efforts in any country. He stressed that “prevention of recurring mass violations
is not only a matter of making changes in texts; prevention calls for changes
in practice and attitude in a society.”
“This can only be achieved through carefully designed and
combined interventions at the level of State institutions, of civil society and
in the sphere of culture and individual dispositions,” the independent expert
said. “In addition to reforming institutions, more concerted work needs to be
undertaken in relation to the preventive function of civil society and the
potential of educational reform, arts, culture, and trauma counselling.”
Burundi
“Since the end of April, Burundi has not only appallingly
turned away from the path it had followed since the 2000 Arusha Agreement. What
is more is that the ‘tradition of impunity’ of the past decades has clearly
enabled the recent repression and violence,” Mr. de Greiff noted.
“I am raising alarm that the international community,
regional and international organizations included, cannot afford to simply
stand by and wait for new mass atrocities to recur. This would risk a major
conflict in the Great Lakes region, the proportions of which no one can
predict,” he warned.
“The highly volatile situation in Burundi requires a
resolute and immediate response by the international community and the Human
Rights Council in particular. Such a response needs to ensure an impartial
assessment of human rights violations on the ground, notwithstanding the
identity or affiliation of the victim or the perpetrator. Such a response would
break the ‘tradition of impunity,’ which lies at the heart of most of the
country’s difficulties,” the independent expert underlined.
In the face of the stalemate on Burundi in the Security
Council, the Human Rights Council as the main UN human rights entity has to give
a concrete and clear sign so as to prevent the recurrence of the worst
imaginable violations. Only by a determined action, can this Council live up to
the long-standing international promise – a promise inscribed in one of the few
memorials in Burundi ‘Plus jamais ça’, the Special Rapporteur urged.
“People in Burundi and the Great Lakes region have endured
untold suffering and the worst imaginable violations. They must be spared
another cycle of violence, with the misery and destruction that violence and
repression always leave in their wake,” he said.
Sri Lanka
“If handled well, the case of Sri Lanka has the potential to
constitute an example for both the region and the world of how a sustainable
peace ought to be achieved,” the human rights expert reiterated.
“To fully realize this potential, however, Sri Lanka needs
to work on parallel tracks. On the one hand, a deliberate process towards a
comprehensive transitional justice strategy needs to be undertaken, which
addresses the manifold challenges the country is facing such as the in-depth reform
of the justice system and the security sector (military, police, intelligences
services included), the establishment of independent truth-seeking mechanisms,
the design of a comprehensive reparation scheme to name a few,” Mr. de Greiff
added.
“Such a process needs to be guided by carefully designed and
conducted consultations that will involve all sectors of Sri Lankan society,
and foremost victims of past gross violations. A firm commitment by the
authorities is indispensable to take such long-term process forward,” the
Special Rapporteur underscored.
“Simultaneously, immediate action must include clarifying
the fate of the disappeared, addressing land issues, making sure that
long-standing practices of arbitrary detentions; of surveillance and harassment–particularly
of women in the Eastern and Northern provinces, many of them already victims of
the conflict—have really come to an end, and last but not least, providing
psycho-social support to victims,” he said.
“Progress on each of these domains needs to be accompanied
by concrete steps to ensure criminal accountability for serious violations. At
this critical juncture, the country cannot afford to simply reproduce an
approach characterized by the proliferation of deliberately half-hearted initiatives
that lack basic trust by the population and that have failed to remedy
fundamental institutional deficiencies.”
“The debate about whether accountability procedures should
be national or international is a mere proxy for two fundamental questions: first,
how to guarantee that whatever institutions are set up can be reliably trusted
by citizens to do their job independently; and second, where will the
specialized capacities to carry out complex investigations into mass atrocities
come from,” the Special Rapporteur concluded.
(*) The reports:
Burundi visit report (A/HRC/30/42/Add.1):
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Documents/A_HRC_30_42_Add_1_ENG_.docx
Sri Lanka observations:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15820&LangID=E
Thematic report on prevention (A/HRC/30/42):
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/HRBodies/HRC/RegularSessions/Session30/Documents/A.HRC.30.42.docx
ENDS
Pablo de Greiff (Colombia) was appointed by the UN Human
Rights Council as the first Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth,
justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence in 2012. He has extensive
professional and academic expertise on transitional justice issues, including
on the four measures under this mandate (justice, truth, reparations, and
guarantees on non-recurrence). Mr. de Greiff has worked with different
transitional justice bodies across the world and has provided advice to a
number of Governments and multilateral institutions on international policy, transitional
justice, and on the linkages between justice, security and development. He was
the Director of Research at the International Center for Transitional Justice
from 2001 to 2014. As of June 2015, Mr. de Greiff is Director of the Project on
Transitional Justice of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at the
NYU School of Law. Learn more, visit:
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/TruthJusticeReparation/Pages/Index.aspx
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body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name
of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that
address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of
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