Commonwealth urged to reassess Sri Lanka's suitability to host CHOGM and assume chair

International Bar Association's Human Rights Institute (IBAHRI) in a panel discussion to launch its new report on Sri Lanka has raised the issue whether Sri Lanka is a suitable venue to hold the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo in November 2013. At the panel discussion held to launch the report "A Crisis of Legitimacy: The Impeachment of Chief Justice Bandaranayake and the Erosion of the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka", a panelist has raised the issue of Sri Lanka's suitability to hold the CHOGM and assume the Chair of the Commonwealth for the next two years. Although it is up to the Commonwealth to decide whether or not the CHOGM goes ahead in Colombo, the IBAHRI has noted that the Commonwealth is committed by its Charter to the observance of the rule of law, good governance, independence of the judiciary, and the upholding of human rights. The panelist, Sadakat Kadri who is the rapporteur of a fact-finding delegation that, under the auspices of the IBAHRI, investigated the independence of the legal profession in Sri Lanka, has said that if the Commonwealth stands for those values, then it needs to carefully consider whether "Sri Lanka is an appropriate venue for the CHOGM and whether it is an appropriate chair in office for the two years after that, because Sri Lanka will become the body that represents the Commonwealth and its core values around the world." "There is a very real danger that if the CHOGM meeting goes ahead [in Sri Lanka], the present government will consider it a licence to continue along the course that it has so far proceeded and fail to uphold the Commonwealth's values," Mr. Kadri has added. The IBAHRI launched the "A Crisis of Legitimacy" report on Monday at the House of Lords in London, in the presence of representatives of the Government of Sri Lanka, High Commissions, human rights groups, lawyers and journalists. During the opening address, Baroness Helena Kennedy of the Shaws has said that all the evidence suggests that the rule of law is seriously under threat in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's authorities did not permit an IBAHRI delegation to visit Sri Lanka to conduct an in-country investigation into the impeachment of former Chief Justice Dr. Shirani Bandaranayake and the independence of the legal profession in Sri Lanka. The delegation conducted interviews and consultations remotely in preparing the report. The research supporting the Report had revealed that the removal of Chief Justice from office was unlawful, is undermining public confidence in the rule of law, and is threatening to eviscerate the country's judiciary as an independent guarantor of constitutional rights. The report makes ten specific recommendations to the Government of Sri Lanka, the UN, the Commonwealth Secretariat, the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group and Member Countries of the Commonwealth.