AUDIO: Amnesty speaks out on Sri Lanka at Asia-Pacific human rights group launch

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AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): A new human rights umbrella organisation had its launch meeting last night with a strong debate on the crisis in Sri Lanka as the country prepares to host an upcoming Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

Amanda Brydon of Amnesty International New Zealand (Aotearoa) praised the Asia Pacific Human Rights Coalition (APHRC) for its strategic initiative.

"I think it’s really good to be able to have a look in-depth at what has occurred in Sri Lanka, and what alleged human rights violations and humanitarian violations took place during the war," the advocacy and government relations manager told Pacific Media Watch.

Co-founder and co-coordinator of APHRC Kevin McBride said it had been a "successful meeting".

"It was a launching meeting for the coalition. We sent out a number of invitations. We got a good range of groups here, had some excellent input and some very practical suggestions as to what we can do relating to the coming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in Sri Lanka," he said.

The meeting is due on November 15-17.

Joan Macdonald, who also represents the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), called the new coalition a "very useful way of working together".

"What I hope it will achieve is that we will all be able to support each other, our organisations, in our work for human rights in the Asia-Pacific region. And I think that working together gives us more strength to do that, and we also find out a lot more about what’s going on in the region as well," she said.

New human rights group calls for NZ to act on Sri Lanka

Listen to audio interview with Brydon, McBride and Macdonald - Transcript:

Daniel Drageset (DD), contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch: Amanda Brydon, Amnesty International New Zealand; just first a question on the new coalition. What’s your take on that?

Amanda Brydon (AB), advocacy and government relations manager, Amnesty International Aoteroa New Zealand: I think it’s really great to have a coalition that provides a platform for all these different organisations to speak on Asia-Pacific issues, and really bring these different voices in an opportunity for different communities and organisations to talk about human rights issues in Asia-Pacific.

DD: Sri Lanka was the topic of discussion today. What’s your view on the discussion today?

AB: I think it’s really good to be able to have a look in-depth at what has occurred in Sri Lanka, and what alleged human rights violations and humanitarian violations took place during the war. But also to have a really frank and constructive discussion about what can happen next and how you can use international opportunities like the Commonwealth Heads of States meeting to really push for some progress and some effective change.

DD: What can New Zealand do in relation to Sri Lanka?

AB: I think New Zealand has a record on the international stage of speaking out on human rights and being a champion for them, and so it really has a good opportunity, especially with the UN Security Council bid where it’s taking a really principled stance. For New Zealand to speak out and take a leadership role in pushing Sri Lanka, encouraging Sri Lanka, to take these effective steps to meet its human rights obligations.

DD: What are the most serious human rights abuses to happen in Sri Lanka?

AB: Well, Amnesty has had a lot of reports of enforced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, and a real crackdown on freedom of expression and freedom of association. Anyone who’s been critical, especially in recent times as well – not just during the war, critical of the government, and anyone who’s seen to dissent, is at risk from speaking out. But what’s really important is that we have an international independent investigation to really find out what occurred, so that perpetrators on both sides, and all sides, can be held to account.

DD: What is realistic to achieve on a short-term perspective in Sri Lanka?

AB: It’s difficult to say, and often getting accountability is a long road. What we’ve seen from the resolutions at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2012 and then in 2013, there’s a real step towards calling for an independent investigation. So, I really think if we can maintain this international pressure and keep it up, that it will be a step towards getting an independent investigation in the long run.

DD: Why hasn’t much happened in Sri Lanka so far?

AB: Well, what we have seen, while there have been investigations they haven’t been independent, they haven’t been adequate, and even some of the recommendations – the better recommendations of the lessons learned [from the] reconciliation committee – haven’t been implemented. What Amnesty sees is a lack of political will and a lack of wanting to admit to any violations or even to investigate them, so there’s a real refusal I think on the level to assess human rights, and make sure human rights are upheld.

DD: How would you view the situation in Sri Lanka compared to other serious human rights situations around the Asia-Pacific?

AB: Well, I think the Asia-Pacific region is one that has many human rights situations occurring. Often they are tied and inter-connected as well, so what we see in the conflict in Sri Lanka is that we get a flow of refugees and asylum seekers into the region that then because of the lack of protection in these transit countries for asylum seekers, that they then suffer from further human rights abuses and arbitrary detention. And then even if they manage get to a country like Australia there’s more violations going on, so I think it’s really important to see the big picture and see how often these abuses are inter-connected.

DD: And finally about the Commonwealth Head of State meeting, what’s your expectations for that and what do you hope to achieve there?

AB: In terms of expectations, I hope that there’s going to be an international spotlight on Sri Lanka and that there’’ll be the conversations about human rights and Sri Lanka’s human rights record going on at CHOGM, and that it is something that is raised in the media and by people on the ground if it’s safe to do so. Whether there’s going to be any progress or not remains to be seen, but I think the more that we can maintain that international pressure and push Commonwealth countries like New Zealand to pressure Sri Lanka to meet its human rights obligations, then the more we are likely to be able to see some progress. Kevin McBride (KMB), co-founder and co-coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition.

DD: What do you hope to achieve with the new coalition?

Kevin McBride (KMC), co-founder and co-coordinator of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition: We hope to develop coordinated action in relation to human rights issues in the Asia-Pacific region, which have some relevance to New Zealand policy and involvement.

DD: What can you tell about the meeting tonight?

KMB: I think it’s been a very successful meeting. It was a launching meeting for the coalition. We sent out a number of invitation; we got a good range of groups here, had some excellent input and some very practical suggestions as to what we can do relating to the coming Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting to be held in Sri Lanka in October. Some of those practical suggestions related to the fact that there’s a real need for an independent, international investigation of what happened in Sri Lanka in 2009 at the end of the so-called civil war between the Tamil people and the Sinhalese government. We also heard tonight that there is a need to Sri Lanka itself to be held accountable, and there was a resolution passed that because of its failure to front up to what happened in 2009, the Sri Lankan government should not be permitted to become the chair of the Commonwealth Heads of Government organisations.

DD: How do you view the situation in Sri Lanka compared to other human rights situations around the Asia-Pacific area?

KMB: Well, I think that in many of the issues, we are faced with the intention of subjugating minorities or differently ethnic people to a central government will. In fact, we can’t speak about that in New Zealand, because our own history includes that, but currently Indonesia is subjecting the West Papuan people to the same thing. The level of atrocities might not be as high as those in Sri Lanka, but they are similar, assassinations and the attack and burning of villages and all that sort of thing. But Sri Lanka is the outstanding example in our region at the moment. The material that has been put together by Amnesty and others on the atrocities that followed the war demand our attention, and demand that we do something about it. Our government is in a position to do that and so we have to find ways to bring pressure on them to take that responsibility.

DD: Finally, can you just say what role you hope New Zealand can play in Sri Lanka?

KMB: New Zealand prides itself on its history of involvement in human rights activism. We were part of the original of the United Nations Convention, but at the same time we don’t always take a responsible position on human rights group. Particularly when things like trade and other such influences come into the situation. We were slow to involve ourselves in East Timor.

We are currently not involving ourselves in West Papua. The fact that we haven’t considered boycotting the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting, or bringing strong pressure on Sri Lanka, shows that currently, although our words may be good, our actions don’t always follow them.

We really have to take a much stronger role internationally as an independent country on addressing these issues. One of the things that worried me tonight was the fact that things like the prevention of terrorism is being used to inhibit action in Sri Lanka, and it worries me that many of our own really good piece human rights legislation are currently able to be overruled by a simple majority in Parliament – things like our trade is threatened. Also, I’m sure that if our alliance with some of the major dominant countries [was] threatened, I’m sure that we too would put our human rights aside. We do need to front up to the fact as a country that we have very good human rights legislation, but we don’t always live up to our best opportunities in following through that legislation.

DD: Joan Macdonald (JM), co-founder of the Asia-Pacific Human Rights Coalition; can you first tell me what you hope the coalition will achieve?

Joan Macdonald (JM): What I hope it will achieve is that we will all be able to support each other, our organisations, in our work for human rights in the Asia-Pacific region. And I think that working together gives us more strength to do that, and we also find out a lot more about what’s going on in the region as well. So, I think it’s a very useful way of working together.

DD: Tell me what exactly has happened now in the lead-up to forming this coalition?

JM: Well, the reason we formed it was that some of the members in this new coalition was part of the Indonesia Human Rights Committee. The suggestion was made that that be disbanded, and we decided rather than disbanding it that we expand it and incorporate all the human rights organisations in the region that were working in the region.

DD: How many members are there of the coalition now?

JM: There are about 10 different groups represented.

DD: Tonight’s meeting was about the situation in Sri Lanka. Tell me your view of the situation and what New Zealand can do?

JM: I think that New Zealand, especially the New Zealand government, should speak out much more strongly, against what’s happening in Sri Lanka, as was said in the forum tonight. Other countries that have behaved like that have been boycotted and told that they have to stop the human rights abuses.

Sri Lanka doesn’t seem to being reprimanded at all for what’s been happening, which is appalling. It is a really appalling situation that’s been going on for a long time with a very corrupt government in Sri Lanka. They’ve been asked to do something about it, and they’re just ignoring the international community.

Although I can’t see a great pressure from the international community, so I guess it’s up to the human rights organisations to make a lot more fuss about it and hope that we can make a difference.

DD: And of course we have the upcoming Commonwealth Head of State meeting. What do you hope realistically will be achieved there in terms of mitigating the human rights situation in Sri Lanka?

JM: Well, what I hope is that the other countries that are attending the meeting raise the issues about what’s happened in Sri Lanka, and ask them. I think that the resolution that we’re talking about is asking that they don’t continue as chair of CHOGM until the next meeting. That means they got two years when they’ve got to write that they shouldn’t have [held the meeting] because they’re not obeying the international laws, so I would hope that the governments would ask them to [step down as CHOGM chair], but I’m not holding my breath about it.

DD: What can human rights organisations and groups like the coalition do to improve the human rights situation in Sri Lanka and other places in the Asia-Pacific?

JM: What we can do is we can do a lot of lobbying. We’ve already written to Prime Minister [John Key] and the Minister of Foreign Affairs [Murray McCully] about CHOGM, so that’s one of the things that we can do. We can support each organisation on particular issues that they’re working on and there are always issues coming up.

Tonight the Philippines was mentioned, and there are a lot of things going on there at the moment. I guess that’s another issue we can do something about, putting pressure on our government, and about doing something about that. I think one of our main jobs would be lobbying our government on issues that we’re concerned about.