Responding to feedback mechanism from Indian interlocutors, Sri Lanka is
actively considering a global human rights panel that will investigate
allegations of human rights violations through a
“full-fledged international human rights monitoring mission.”
Earlier President Mahinda Rajapakse had conceptually agreed to a constitute a panel, and it looks like the Sri Lankan Government (SLG) had gone a step further since then by consulting the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The initial genesis for this initiative was the slaughter of 17 aid workers in Muttur by the Sri Lankan Army (SLA). While a Presidential Commission of Inquiry was appointed to look into the charges of human rights violations, there are numerous complaints regarding its impartiality and sphere of control.
The SLG has been at pains to set a context of complexity on the ethnic strife arguing that there are no “easy answers.” But the very fact that they have agreed to an international body to investigate violations including the actions of this Commission is a very positive sign.