A/HRC/22/38 I. Introduction 1. The present report is submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 19/2, in which the Council called upon the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the constructive recommendations made in the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission1 and to take all necessary additional steps to fulfil its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans. The Council requested the Government to present a comprehensive action plan detailing the steps that the Government had taken and would take to implement the recommendations made in the Commission’s report, and also to address alleged violations of international law. It encouraged the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and relevant special procedures mandate holders to provide, in consultation with and with the concurrence of the Government of Sri Lanka, advice and technical assistance on implementing the above-mentioned steps, and requested OHCHR to present a report on the provision of such assistance to the Council at its twenty-second session. 2. In June 2010, the Secretary-General appointed the Panel of Experts on Accountability in Sri Lanka to advise him on accountability issues in Sri Lanka and offered it as a resource to the Government, and particularly to the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission.2 The Panel, which submitted its report to the SecretaryGeneral in April 2011, found credible allegations of potential serious violations of international law committed by the Government of Sri Lanka and by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).3 The Government of Sri Lanka has never afforded any credence or legitimacy to the report of the Panel. 3. In July 2012, the Government issued a national plan of action for the implementation of the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. According to the delegation of Sri Lanka participating in the fourteenth session of the universal periodic review, in November 2012, the Sri Lankan army had also appointed a board of inquiry to study the Commission’s recommendations and to formulate a viable action plan to implement the recommendations that are relevant to the army. The relationship of this mechanism to the national plan of action is, however, unclear. 4. In order to define areas of possible advice and assistance that could be offered to the Government by OHCHR and the special procedures pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 19/2, the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka or plans to implement 1 2 3 Available from www.defence.lk/warcrimes/lessons_learnt_and_reconciliation_commission_final_report.html. See the report of the Secretary-General’s Panel of Experts on Sri Lanka, 31 March 2011 (available from www.un.org/en/rights/srilanka.shtml), annex 2. According to the Panel of Experts, in the case of the Government, these were (a) the killing of civilians through widespread shelling; (b) the shelling of hospitals and humanitarian objects; (c) the denial of humanitarian assistance; (d) human rights violations suffered by victims and survivors of the conflict; and (e) human rights violations outside the conflict zone, including against the media and other critics of the Government. In the case of the LTTE, these were (a) using civilians as a human buffer; (b) killing civilians attempting to flee LTTE control; (c) using military equipment in the proximity of civilians; (d) forced recruitment of children; (e) forced labour; and (f) the killing of civilians through suicide attacks (paras. 176-177). The panel concluded that “the credible allegations trigger a legal duty of the Government to conduct immediate and genuine investigations and, if the evidence warrants, to prosecute those most responsible” (para. 425) 3