UNHRC Vote - A Clash of Civilizations?
Does Last Month's Vote Represent a Remaking of the World Order?
May 31, 2009
In 1996, Samuel P Huntington, a professor at Harvard University and famous political scientist published a book 'The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World Order.
In this book, he prophesied (among other things) that the Western world's belief in the universality of "Western" values and systems, and its naïve attempts to force them on other civilizations, would only go on to antagonize these civilizations and even trigger major clashes in the years to come.
At last week's United Nations Human Rights Council special session held in Geneva on May 27th, Switzerland and certain European Union countries tabled a resolution to call for a probe into alleged "war crimes" in Sri Lanka following that country's defeat of the LTTE Tamil Tigers. Although the UNHRC' s usual sessions were just a week away, these countries actively campaigned to convene a special session in order to call for a "comprehensive international investigation on the conduct of Sri Lankan forces in the last phase of the war" .
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) based in Geneva, successor to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, is a subsidiary body of the United Nations General Assembly and was set up in 2006 to make recommendations to the General Assembly about situations in which human rights are violated.
Sri Lanka's War Against Terrorism
In the immediate aftermath of Sri Lanka's hard fought struggle against a terrorist movement in that country that had lasted nearly thirty years, at a time when the nation is just beginning to pick itself up and move forwards to rehabilitate and reconstruct this once peaceful land, Switzerlnd and certain European Union countries sought to impose a "War Crimes" probe.
Instead of complimenting Sri Lanka which - at great cost to its own citizens and members of its armed forces - became one of the few countries in the modern world that has actually succeeded in defeating a terrorist movement, these member countries of the UNHRC sought, as some observed, to "punish Sri Lanka for having defeated the terrorist LTTE" . It appeared to be the British view that a call for such a probe was essential to calm the feelings of LTTE supporters in that country who were demanding this.
Assisting Sri Lanka After the War
At the special session, many delegates, particularly those from the Asian, African and Latin American countries expressed the opinion that the Special Session was unwarranted and a waste of time in view of the regular session a week away. They also emphasised that Sri Lanka had a legitimate right to defeat terrorism and that the matter is an internal affair of a sovereign state. What the international community should now do, they felt, is to assist the Sri Lankan government in its relief and rehabilitation efforts.
Speaking on behalf of the African group, the Egyptian delegate Hisham Badr stated that the conflict in Sri Lanka was an internal affair in which a sovereign Government did its best to fulfill its duty towards its citizens and took measures necessary to fight a militia that was universally recognized as a terrorist group.
Human Rights Situation in Sri Lanka
The delegate from Cuba, Resfel Pino, speaking on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement said that Sri Lanka’s sovereign right to fight terrorism and separatism within its undisputed borders had to be respected. India's delegate,Gopinathan Achamkulangare went on record that India had serious reservations about the objectives of convening a Special Session on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka at this time - and obseved that some Members had, regrettably, politicized the Council’s work.
War Crimes Investigation in Iraq?
Many delegates were of the view that the Western countries, simply because they had written the international laws and built international systems like the UN, refused to accept the fact they no longer were the policemen and interpreters of who could do what in the world, and can no longer selectively apply "humanitarian intervention" to small eastern countries. Would they, for example, have convened a special session of the UNHRC to call for a war crimes investigation in Iraq - or Afghanistan - or even Northern Ireland?
These machinations to get Sri Lanka investigated for war crimes is precisely the encouragement required by those elements in the Tamil diaspora that, despite the defeat of the Tigers and the death of its leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, would like to resurrect the Tiger ethos.
Fortunately the EU motion was defeated by 22 votes to 7, vindicating Sri Lanka and allowing the country to get on with the task of rebuilding and reconciliation.
Observed Dr Dayan Jayatilleke, Sri Lanka's ambasador to the UN in Geneva, "The result of the voting at this session was a lesson to a handful of countries, which depict themselves as 'guardians of the world', that they do not represent the majority of the world. What we saw today is that the vast mass of humanity is in suport of Sri Lanka."
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