Turning the page

Just before the session began, someone told me about Mike the chicken who somehow managed to survive for 18 months despite being headless. There’s been more than a few times over the last year and a half when I’ve known how he felt.

The demands of trying to work with a young family and badly behaved pets in a home with dodgy electrics have been taking their toll on body and soul. My grey hairs have taken majority occupancy by stealth, such that I no longer get asked for identification, even in American bars, and a teenager actually offered me his tram seat on the way home last week (I said yes). But for the most part my accelerated aging has been down to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka was the cause of the Council’s darkest moment. At the 2009 Special Session the Council adopted a self-congratulatory resolution, presented by Sri Lanka itself, which ignored many reports of mass atrocities at the end of the conflict and instead praised the government’s actions. This badly tarnished the Council’s reputation and added to the despair of victims. Thankfully this session has turned the page on 2009. The landmark resolution adopted last week takes up many recommendations made in the recent investigation by High Commissioner Zeid and sets out the key measures needed for progress on human rights, reconciliation and accountability. It is to the great credit of the new Sri Lankan Government that it chose to actively support and co-sponsor the resolution, thereby firmly committing to its implementation. This has finally set Sri Lankan on a path of cooperation with the UN human rights system after so many years of acrimonious and needless confrontation.

The resolution is a testament to the bravery of human rights defenders inside Sri Lanka and the steely determination of many civil society actors outside the country. It is they who have managed to keep the human rights situation under the international spotlight as it continued to deteriorate, when many at the Council wanted to walk away and put the shame of 2009 behind them. I’ve covered the issue longer than most and have found many moments of inspiration along the way, some of them deeply upsetting. Like many who saw the screening of the documentary ‘No Fire Zone’ at a Council side event in March 2013, I continue to feel haunted by it. There was much to find disturbing, but I was especially affected by the scenes in which a father is first seen fleeing the conflict zone seeking medical help for his young injured child and then later shown in a state of utter disbelief holding his son’s corpse after being given only some blue plastic wrapping to take away the body in. It was at the same event that Tamil National Alliance politician MA Sumanthiran left a profound impression with a quote drawn from Arthur Schopenhauer. He said:

Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognised. In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed and in the third it is regarded as self-evident.

Sri Lanka still has a long way to go before it comes to terms with its own truth. But we can take heart that the country’s Government has moved from ridicule and opposition under the former regime to expressing its clear support for truth, accountability and reconciliation.

There were more than 30 other resolutions adopted this session including important texts on Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Cambodia, Yemen, the DRC, the Central African Republic and Burundi. It was also encouraging to see Ukraine invite scrutiny of its own situation with a discussion on the work of the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in the country. Many states welcomed Ukraine’s open approach but expressed alarm at ongoing reports of violations by separatists in Eastern Ukraine and Russia’s continuing supply of weapons and fighters.

The session’s close on Friday evening marked the end of the Council’s regular annual calendar. By the time we meet in March next year the United States will have come off the Council, as will Ireland, who have also been an excellent member. But I’ll especially miss our much respected neighbour in the Chamber, Ambassador Stevens from Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone has made an enormous impact over the last 3 years despite having one of the smallest Geneva delegations and its principled stance has been inspired by its own recent experience of democratic transition following brutal civil war. And as always we’ll have to say many a sad farewell to those departing Geneva’s shores, including my colleague and friend Kate Kyriakides.

And so ends another session. I’m sure I’m not alone in looking forward to seeing my long neglected family again. Though I’ll be lucky if I‘ve not been replaced by someone a little more useful about the house. Like the local electrician.