[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 427 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 427
Recognizing 14 years since the end of the war in Sri Lanka on May 18,
2009, honoring the lives lost, and expressing support for justice,
accountability, reconciliation, reconstruction, reparation, and reform
in Sri Lanka to ensure a lasting peaceful political solution and a
prosperous future for all people of Sri Lanka.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 18, 2023
Ms. Ross (for herself, Mr. Johnson of Ohio, Mr. Nickel, Mr. Davis of
North Carolina, Mr. Jackson of North Carolina, Ms. Lee of Pennsylvania,
Mr. Davis of Illinois, and Mrs. McBath) submitted the following
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Recognizing 14 years since the end of the war in Sri Lanka on May 18,
2009, honoring the lives lost, and expressing support for justice,
accountability, reconciliation, reconstruction, reparation, and reform
in Sri Lanka to ensure a lasting peaceful political solution and a
prosperous future for all people of Sri Lanka.
Whereas May 18, 2023, marks the 14-year anniversary of the end of the 26-year
armed conflict between the Government of Sri Lanka and various armed
Tamil independence organizations, including the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam;
Whereas all communities suffered from violence and counterviolence during the
ethnic war;
Whereas the Tamil people of Sri Lanka suffered tens of thousands of deaths,
disappearances, abuses, and displacements;
Whereas the ethnic war was marked by credible allegations of war crimes, crimes
against humanity, and acts of violence committed by the Sri Lankan
Government, including through the military's deliberate shelling of
civilians in government-designated no fire zones during the war's final
months in 2009, in which 40,000 to 170,000 Tamils were presumed to have
been killed;
Whereas in the absence of Sri Lanka implementing the recommendations of its own
Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission or instituting a credible
justice mechanism to investigate serious crimes committed during and
after the war, the United States sponsored resolutions in the United
Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in 2012, 2013, and 2014 calling in
ever stronger terms for domestic action and reconciliation;
Whereas the United Nation's Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights
issued a report in 2015 (the OISL Report) that outlined the occurrence
of war crimes and crimes against humanity and violations of
international humanitarian law during the war in Sri Lanka;
Whereas following a change in government in Sri Lanka, the release of the OISL
Report, and the recommendations of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, the United States cosponsored with Sri Lanka a UNHRC resolution
in 2015, HRC 30/1, which was reaffirmed in 2017;
Whereas under HRC 30/1, the Sri Lankan government made transitional justice
commitments for postwar reconciliation including--
(1) an accountability mechanism with a special court inclusive of
Commonwealth and foreign judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and investigators;
(2) a truth commission;
(3) an office of missing persons;
(4) an office of reparations and institutional reforms aimed at
nonrecurrence; and
(5) a number of confidence-building measures;
Whereas, in continued demonstration of impunity for human rights violations and
despite serving as a cosponsor of the resolution, Sri Lanka withdrew
from HRC 30/1 in 2020;
Whereas the northeastern region of the country, the traditional Tamil homeland,
remains heavily militarized with up to one soldier for every two
civilians in the most war-affected regions;
Whereas Sri Lanka has passed laws aimed at limiting the freedom of expression of
the Eelam Tamil community;
Whereas, in 2018, the Northern Provincial Council of Sri Lanka adopted
resolutions calling for an international investigation into alleged war
crimes committed during the armed conflict and for a United Nations-
monitored referendum in the northeastern region of the island to support
the development of a permanent political solution;
Whereas the Government of Sri Lanka has postponed provincial elections for
multiple years, denying all Sri Lankans, including the Tamil people in
the Northern Province and the Eastern Province, their democratic right
to local representation;
Whereas Richard Boucher, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central
Asian Affairs, said during a visit to Sri Lanka on June 1, 2006, that
``There are legitimate issues that are raised by the Tamil community and
they have a very legitimate desire, as anybody would, to be able to
control their own lives, to rule their own destinies and to govern
themselves in their homeland; in the areas they've traditionally
inhabited.'';
Whereas a 2021 report from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
found that the Government of Sri Lanka has, over the past year--
(1) elevated individuals implicated in war crimes to senior
governmental positions;
(2) pardoned a convicted war criminal;
(3) reversed key democratic reforms and consolidated power behind the
office of the President;
(4) obstructed efforts to investigate and prosecute perpetrators of war
crimes;
(5) promoted majoritarian and exclusionary rhetoric;
(6) engaged in surveillance and harassment of civil society
organizations and human rights advocates; and
(7) allegedly employed security forces to abduct and torture
dissidents;
Whereas the report warns that ``Sri Lanka's current trajectory sets the scene
for the recurrence of the policies and practices that gave rise to grave
human rights violations'';
Whereas the United States cosponsored a UNHRC resolution, HRC 46/1 (2021), led
by the United Kingdom, which recognizes the lack of accountability for
past violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in
Sri Lanka and directs the Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights to collect, analyze, and preserve information and evidence for
future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights;
Whereas the United States cosponsored UNHRC resolution, HRC 51/1 (2022), which--
(1) underscores the importance of addressing deepening militarization,
lack of accountability in governance, and impunity for serious human rights
violations and abuses;
(2) recognizes the importance of peaceful protests to the effectiveness
of democratic systems and democratic processes, including elections and
referendums; and
(3) calls upon the Government of Sri Lanka to fulfill its commitments
on the devolution of political authority and to ensure that all provincial
councils, including the northern and eastern provincial councils, are able
to operate effectively;
Whereas no effort has been made to bring to justice those who are alleged to
have committed war crimes and crimes against humanity, no investigations
have begun even on emblematic cases, evidence gathering is hindered
through arbitrary arrests and threats by the state, and impunity
prevails in the country with the outdated and the excessively harsh
Prevention of Terrorism Act, which does not comply with international
standards and has still not been repealed despite repeated promises by
the government;
Whereas the former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle
Bachelet, stated in January 2021, ``Given the demonstrated inability and
unwillingness of the Government to advance accountability at the
national level, it is time for international action to ensure justice
for international crimes. States should also pursue investigations and
prosecution in their national courts--under accepted principles of
extraterritorial or universal jurisdiction--of international crimes
committed by all parties in Sri Lanka.'';
Whereas Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has continued the damaging
policies of the Rajapaksas, including state-sponsored land
appropriation, occupation and destruction of Tamil religious and
cultural sites, subjugation of and violence against largely peaceful
protests, imprisonment of activists, and disregard for calls for justice
for past violations;
Whereas families of individuals who disappeared during and following the armed
conflict still have no information regarding the whereabouts of their
loved ones, and no lists of persons who surrendered to the government
after the end of the armed conflict have been published; and
Whereas progress on domestic and international investigations into reports of
war crimes and human rights during the conflict and the promotion of
reconciliation would facilitate United States engagement and investment
in Sri Lanka and demonstrate support for the international rule of law:
Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
(1) acknowledges the 14th anniversary of the end of the war
in Sri Lanka and offers its deepest condolences to all those
affected by the conflict;
(2) honors the memory of those who died and reaffirms its
solidarity with the people of all communities in Sri Lanka in
their search for reconciliation, reconstruction, reparation,
and reform;
(3) commends the United Nations Human Rights Council for
prioritizing the collection and preservation of evidence
related to human rights violations, a process that must not be
interfered with by the Government of Sri Lanka;
(4) recognizes the bravery and commitment of advocates for
justice across all communities in Sri Lanka, including the
Tamil families of the disappeared, whose protests and demands
for answers have at times been met with threats, intimidation,
and harassment by government security forces;
(5) urges the international community to advocate for and
protect the political rights and representation of the
historically oppressed northeastern region of Sri Lanka and
work towards a permanent political solution to address the
underlying issues that led to ethnic conflict and ensure
nonrecurrence of violence;
(6) encourages the promotion of universally accepted
democratic principles and systems on the island of Sri Lanka,
including through the use of the referendum process to ensure
that peoples of all ethnicities, including the Eelam Tamil
people, are democratically and equitably represented on the
island;
(7) recommends the United States explore investigations and
prosecutions pursuant to the recommendations of the United
Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights;
(8) urges the United States to work with the United Nations
General Assembly, the United Nations Security Council, and the
United Nations Human Rights Council to establish a credible and
effective international mechanism for accountability for the
grave crimes committed during the war in Sri Lanka; and
(9) encourages the Secretary of State to leverage the
United States position on the United Nations Security Council
to pursue a referral of Sri Lanka to the International Criminal
Court, as outlined in the February 2021 report on Sri Lanka
from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,
which describes ``the referral of the situation in Sri Lanka to
the International Criminal Court'' as one option to ``advance
criminal accountability and provide measures of redress for
victims''.
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