ICPPED draft Bill will affect judicial independence: PNM

Patriotic National Movement (PNM)Secretary Dr. Wasantha Bandara said a draft Bill to give effect to the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) will affect Sri Lanka's Judicial independence.

"The Bill which has proposed a domestic mechanism to probe alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka will be presented to Parliament shortly.

Our judiciary system will become enslaved to foreign countries if we passed this Bill in Parliament,” he said. The bill will be a move to “witch-hunt the war heroes,” he said.

"ri Lanka became a signatory to the ICPPED on December 10, 2015, and ratified the instrument in May, this year. But, the Convention has not yet been translated into Sinhala and Tamil. It has not even presented to Parliament and MPs had not been given a copy. So how those MPs will participate in debate without this information? The ICPPED has not even signed in many countries such as Australia, USA, UK, India and Pakistan as they know the adversely effects of it.

Attorney-at-Law Kalyananda Thiranagamage said if this law was passed in Parliament, our judiciary is bound to implement the provisions of the convention," he added. Rear Admiral Dr. Sarath Weerasekera said it is questionable why the people are still silent when the attempts are being made to take our valiant soldiers to international criminal courts. People have not much aware on adversely affects of this Bill for the country and for them.

"The recently concluded 34th session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva has once again recommended that Sri Lanka should form a hybrid court consisting of foreign judges to hear alleged war crimes.The UNHRC will never withdraw the proposal of setting up hybrid court even though the many politicians say various things,” he added. 

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