Siobhain urges government to participate in meaningful international action on crimes against Tamils

Yesterday Siobhain gave a speech at Westminster Hall, pressing the Foreign Office Minister, Hugo Swire, to ensure the international community does more to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity in Sri Lanka to justice.

You can watch Siobhain's speech here (at 17:04) or read it below.

‘It is crucial that tomorrow’s report [report from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka, published 16th September 2015] must represent the beginning of international action on behalf of Sri Lanka’s victims, not the conclusion of the issue.

If the international community, including the UK, fails to fulfil its role in providing international oversight, perpetrators of war crimes and continued human rights abuses will never be brought to justice.

Such international pressure could include the following recommendations, all made by the International Truth and Justice Programme:

• Firstly, appointing a Special Envoy for human rights in Sri Lanka to go beyond the offering of ‘technical assistance’ alone; 
• Secondly, ensuring the protection of witnesses by internationally-accepted protection standards;
• Thirdly, the referral of the forthcoming OHCHR report to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for further action; 
• Fourthly, pushing for the Secretary General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict and the Special Rapporteur on Torture to visit Sri Lanka and initiate a special inquiry into rape and sexual violence;
• And finally, the suspension of Sri Lankan police and military involvement in UN peacekeeping missions.

We cannot let limited national mechanisms fail to provide the victims of inhumanity the fairness and justice that they truly deserve.

As a ‘silent war’ against historic and ongoing human rights abuses continues, the international community can, and must, do more.’