National decision-making with International support can deliver lasting results

The government's openness to the international human rights community as witnessed in its welcome to UN Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Türk, and willingness to receive advice from him, perhaps reflects its sense of confidence in its sincerity of purpose to uplift the country politically economically and in terms of the people's enjoyment of human rights.

- BY JEHAN PERERA

The government appears to be living Tagore's dream: “Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls.” In this context, international support is to be welcomed whether in the form of assistance from the IMF, the UN or individual countries.

The UN High Commissioner’s visit to Sri Lanka took place at a time when the UN and other international proponents of human rights are under siege. The leader of the most powerful country in the world, President Donald Trump, has not only withdrawn his country from the UN Human Rights Council but also recommended the cessation of funding to a number of international organisations including UN ones that deal with human rights and war crimes. President Donald Trump’s office announced a recommendation to terminate US funding for nearly two dozen programmes that conduct war crimes and accountability work globally, including in Sri Lanka.

The lack of a consistent application of international human rights standards has been there ever since those standards came into existence. It is generally the case that there is one set of rules for the rich and powerful and another for the poor and weak. The present time is one in which the international laws and norms are openly breached with impunity. When the world’s most powerful countries violate them there is little or nothing that other countries or institutions can do to stop them. The asymmetry is painfully visible in Gaza and in Ukraine. It is bound to be duplicated in other countries.