[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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