Tamils Have The Right To Call For Genocide Investigation – TCSF

[Tamils killed in the war; photo- Internet]

  Statement on NPC Resolution on Tamil Genocide
The Tamil Civil Society Forum issues this statement to state its position on the question of the appropriateness of the Northern Provincial Council passing a resolution identifying the crimes that were committed and those that continue to be committed against the Tamil people as amounting to the crime of Genocide. We release this statement having sought advice from lawyers competent to comment on International Law, where such advice was required and relevant.

1. The UN Genocide Convention of 1948 aims to prevent and punish the commission of Genocide defined as the destruction of a national, ethnical, racial or religious group (Article 2 of the Convention) in whole or part. Genocide is also a jus cogens norm of Customary International Law. It cannot be disputed that Tamils fit within the definition of either a ‘national’ or ‘ethnic’ group or both.

2. Genocide is a crime recognized in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (Article 6) along with other categories of crimes such as War Crimes (Article 8) and Crimes Against Humanity (Article 7). Any investigation that inquires into the atrocities, that were perpetrated (and those that continue to be perpetrated) against Tamils needs to investigate all three categories of crimes identified above, including Genocide. Tamils and their representatives have a right to ask for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights inquiry team on Sri Lanka (OISL) to investigate the crime of genocide in addition to an investigation into war crimes and crime against humanity. Requesting an investigation into genocide serves to ensure that all possible violations of international law are appropriately identified and explored. Needless to say such a request does not prejudice OISL’s investigation into other crimes including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Neither the UN Secretary General’s Panel of Experts report’s silence on the crime of Genocide nor the text of the UN Human Rights Council March 2014 resolution prevent the OISL from investigating the crime of genocide.

3. Tamils and their representatives have the right to form a legal opinion that the atrocities that were committed (and continue to be perpetrated) against them amounts to Genocide. There are sufficient, reasonable grounds to form such a legal opinion, such that this is not a spurious claim. Tamils and their representatives also have a concomitant right to seek the intervention of the International Community to prevent and protect them from the commission of Genocide. The right to state and claim the above stems from their right to freedom of speech and expression enshrined in international human rights law. Prevention and protection from Genocide are also duties that stem from the UN Genocide Convention and the emerging doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect. The self-characterization and identification of the crime to which they were subjected to, by the victim group, in no way prejudices an impartial inquiry into those crimes by any body that is empowered to do so. Hence, the identification of the crime that befell them as constituting genocide by Tamils in no way prejudices OISL’s inquiry into the same.