UN Human Rights chief for SL killings probe

United Nations, Nov 8: The top UN Human Rights official has welcomed Sri Lanka's establishment of an inquiry commission into extrajudicial killings and disappearances, but expressed concern over its effectiveness due to the shortcomings in the legal system.

While hoping that the commission will see the perpetrators of serious rights abuses brought to justice, High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour stressed that such a body can only investigate a selection of cases and a broader international mechanism is still needed to monitor and ultimately prevent human rights violations in the longer term.

Among the shortcomings, she underlined the absence of any legal tradition of establishing command responsibility for human rights violations and noted that many recommendations of past commissions of inquiry, including those into disappearances, had not yet been fully implemented.

''It will be critically important for the commission to establish not only individual responsibility for crimes, but the broader patterns and context in which they occur,'' she said in a statement.

Ms Arbour thanked the government for inviting her to advice on the terms of reference for the commission and expressed satisfaction that many of the comments by her office had been taken into account, including the need for witness protection and steps to increase transparency.

She also noted that the government had invited a group of international observers to monitor, provide advice as requested and report on the commission's work.

UNI

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