SRI LANKA: IIGEP episode, AG’s department becoming prosecutor and defender at the same time
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[AHRC]
The hottest topic in Sri Lanka this week is the press statement given at a meeting by the International Independent Group of Imminent Persons (IIGEP), in which the chairperson, Justice P.N Bhagwati, a former chief justice of India, Sir Nigel Rodley, a reputed international lawyer, and Professor Yozo Yokota, a former member of the UN Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (2000-2006), participated. The press statement explained the reasons for the IIGEP’s abandonment of their monitoring role. The abandonment was a result of their disappointment in the face of the absence of political will on the part of the government to find out the truth about the 16 cases of gross abuses of human rights investigated by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry (CoI).