Human Rights and Economic recovery are inseparable

Deepening food insecurity has driven the already-suffering poor to face the threat of extreme poverty

“Asia’s ambitions can only be fulfilled if Governments pay the same attention to Human Rights as they do to economic development”
- Salil Shetty (Former Secy. General Amnesty International)

The UNHRC Resolution on Sri Lanka adopted two weeks ago was a stinging rebuke of the Sri Lankan government; not only in terms of the non-action and willful suppression of crimes committed during the last phase of the civil war, but more importantly, the abuses carried out by the security forces and the police against the Aragalaya activists. It also pulverized the myth that President Ranil Wickremesinghe had the Global North in his pocket and could have it all his way, when it comes to matters of governance. While many developed nations have pledged support for Sri Lanka to overcome the present economic crisis the country faces in an unprecedented manner, there should not be any illusion that they will ignore the question of human rights violation and official impunity that is rampant. 

The utterly insensitive and inhumanly barbaric state response to dissent is not new to Sri Lanka. It has been so in the 1971, in 1988-89, during the civil war period, after the Easter Sunday attacks, and now with regard to the Aragalaya. Although the faces of the regimes have changed, the central element of impunity and lack of regard for human rights remains. If at all, the culture of impunity is now gaining momentum with the attempt of the government to declare High security zones, (which was now thwarted due to severe pressure from civil society, activists and international groups), as well as the Rehabilitation Bill which effectively seeks to send dissenters in to Gulak Archipelago type detention. While the government is trying to muster international support to solicit every bit of aid needed to resuscitate a dying economy, it does not seem to be aware of the fact that a bleak human rights picture at the domestic level is detrimental to such efforts.

Minority problem?

The majority Sinhalese of this country had thought, until very recently that human rights and accountability issues were something to do with the Tamil separatists and the foreign actors who were trying to meddle with the internal affairs of the state. The Rajapaksas fed this myth in to the Sinhala body polity continuously and reaped benefits of the ignorance of the masses who were under their spell. Personalities not lesser than Cardinal Malcom Ranjith decried the role of human rights and accountability in no uncertain terms. (It was a stroke of irony that the respectable Cardinal himself had to seek international support to get justice for the Easter Sunday Attack victim.) 

The bottom line is, we have been living under state impunity, without transparency and accountability for so long, now it will take some time for the masses to realize that those are essential for economic prosperity and unity. They are not a byproduct of prosperity; they are major factors for economic prosperity in a highly interconnected world. 
Does not the government know that a bad international image created by abuses of freedom at the ground level defeats any effort to get international support to get out of this abysmal mess we are in? Certainly, the government cannot be oblivious to the fact that the success or failure of the drive for humanitarian assistance and financial aid is intrinsically interrelated to the issue of governance in the eyes of the international community, the Global North in particular. It cannot be ignorant of the fact, also, that in addition to the allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity which constituted the backbone of the UNHCR resolutions in the years gone by, are now only part of the international scrutiny. The excesses resorted to by the police and armed forces in dealing with the popular mass movement that started in April this year which led to the toppling of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa regime, has become a new reference point for the UNHRC and all states in the Core group on Sri Lanka, by no uncertain means. 

Undefendable 

 If the contingencies of a brutal civil war were to be used as mitigatory factors against those allegations and would have convinced some states to be lenient on Sri Lanka, the use of excessive force including assault, arrest, detention and even murder of unarmed civilian protesters in Colombo hardly would fall in to that category. The Sri Lankan government is not helping itself with the UN Resolution at all. More gravely, it is not helping its citizens, who are already reeling from the effects of this economic collapse. 

The Human Right Council cannot dictate action on a state by itself; any such step will have to be taken through the UN Security Council. While it is too early to foresee such measures and it is dearly hoped that things would not lead to that extreme end, the government, nevertheless, cannot entirely write off stern and resolute action if impunity and excesses continue. At the same time, it is to be noted that whatever measures that have been taken domestically in the past to uphold rights and address violations have been as response, sometimes reluctantly, to international pressure and scrutiny at the UNHRC. As willing and cooperative action has been hard to come by on the side of the GOSL, one expects the international community to keep up the heat on an errant government till the situation improves. 

Not a luxury 

There is a school of thought that Fundamental Rights, human liberties and freedom are a thing that only citizens of Developed nations can experience and luxuries not afforded for countries like ours. For one the former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa firmly believed that the every such freedom was second fiddle in face of a drive for economic development and financial stability. The military leaders, too, seem to believe so, as they vow not to allow any kind of uprising again in Sri Lanka either in the North or the South. How woefully ignorant they are of political history. It is not military presence or extreme use of force that brings civil peace and order to a country. It is equal distribution of resources coupled with an awareness among broad masses that they too are partakers of the sovereign power to govern. Only good governance could ensure compliance, whatever the measures aimed at economic reform and rebuilding. 

Good governance is as elusive as ever now and in quite contrast to his previously held reputation of being a champion of Human liberties, the Present President is embarked on restricting and suppressing peaceful and unarmed dissent and protest. If Ranil Wickremesinghe and the government that backs him in parliament think that if they could somehow hold ground till IMF loan is available, every malady that afflicts this nation are going to be remedied, they are wrong. 

The relative lull that has come to society as a result of some of the basic necessities which were in shortage being available, albeit at exorbitant costs, is just an illusion. This is the calm before the storm. While international pressure becomes unescapable with every week that is passing, the simmering frustration among the public is coming to a level that it needs a vent.