Home / News / Urgent Appeals / UPDATE(Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka must ratify the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations
 

UPDATE(Sri Lanka): Sri Lanka must ratify the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

July 24, 2007

UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL UPDATE ON URGENT APPEAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Update on Urgent Appeal

25 July 2007

[RE: UP-097-2007: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Your urgent intervention is needed to save Rizana Nafeek who must appeal against the death sentence before 16 July 2007; UG-004-2007: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: A Special Appeal under Extraordinary Circumstances for Nafeek Rizana; UP-093-2007: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Please immediately write to the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to save the life of its citizen; UA-207-2007: SAUDI ARABIA/SRI LANKA: Death sentence to young girl requires urgent intervention by the Sri Lankan government]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
UP-104-2007: SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka must ratify the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

SRI LANKA: Legal protection; treaties
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has previously informed you through several appeals regarding the case of Ms. Rizana Nafeek who is facing the death sentence by beheading in Saudi Arabia and who has now succeed in filing an appeal before the Supreme Court in Saudi Arabia with the help of several financial donors. Even though the initial stage for her appeal before the Court has been launched, the possibilities of other Sri Lankan migrant workers facing similar situations such as the death sentence or rigorous imprisonment still exist because the legal protection that should be provided by their government is not guaranteed due to the government's failure to ratify the international law able to protect its citizen.

As many appeals are proceeding on behalf of Ms. Rizana Nafeek and also as an appeal has been lodged in the Dawadami Court, several other important matters regarding the protection of migrant workers, like Rizana, have come to the forefront of the public debate.

One such issue is the need for the Sri Lankan government to ratify the Optional Protocol concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes associated with the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. While many countries in a similar situation as Sri Lanka have signed this Optional Protocol, including Sri Lanka's neighbouring countries of India, Pakistan and Nepal, Sri Lanka has not yet done so.

Ratification of this Optional Protocol will bring many benefits to Sri Lanka and in particular, the migrant workers who are in employed in countries where certain laws and procedures may not be in conformity with international norms and standards, thereby permitting disputes to arise that require compulsory settlement. The beheading the four Sri Lankan earlier, the situation faced by Rizana Nafeek at present, and many other persons in many places in the Middle East in particular, raises the need for protective measures to be taken. One such measure is the signing of this particular protocol.

Sri Lanka acceded to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations in May, 2006. During this time there was a public outcry arising out the problem faced by three Sri Lankan who were facing the death sentence and another facing 15 years of rigorous imprisonment in Saudi Arabia. As a result of this outcry the government acceded to the Convention but did not proceed at the same time to ratify the Optional Protocol concerning Compulsory Settlement of Disputes, which would have provided the government with several advantages in dealing with these cases.

Though the government has acceded to the Vienna Convention, it has not yet put in place a system to exercise its rights under this convention to promptly arrange for the legal representation of its nationals in foreign custody. Such right to intervene for legal representation already exists as Sri Lanka now is a signatory to the convention.

To gain further advantage Sri Lanka should promptly ratify the Optional Protocol mentioned above.

For further information on the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations please see these links:
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2005/04/08/opinion/1.asp
http://www.dailymirror.lk/2007/07/23/opinion/02.asp

For details of the case, please see: UA-207-2007, UP-093-2007, AHRC-OL-022-2007, UG-004-2007, AS-155-2007, AS-156-2007, UP-097-2007, AS-158-2007, AS-160-2007, AS-163-2007, AS-162-2007, AS-165-2007, AS-169-2007, AHRC-OL-023-2007.

__________________________

SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write a letter to the Sri Lankan authorities requesting the urgent ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes.

To support this appeal, please click here:

Suggested letter:

Dear ___________,

SRI LANKA: Sri Lanka must ratify the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations

I am writing to bring to your notice the need to ratify the Optional Protocol to the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations concerning the Compulsory Settlement of Disputes. This need is very much highlighted by the four Sri Lankans who were beheaded and the teenager who is facing the death sentence in Saudi Arabia, Rizana Nafeek.

I urge the government to ratify the said protocol and make available to itself the provisions within the Protocol for intervention on matters of national interest and particularly on matters relating to the lives and liberties of all Sri Lankans.

Yours sincerely,

----------------

PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:

1. His Excellency the Hon. Mr. Mahinda Rajapakse
President Socialist Democratic Republic of  Sri Lanka
C/- Office of the President
Temple Trees, 150, Galle Road
Colombo 3
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2472100 / 2446657
Email: secretary@presidentsoffice.lk

2. Dr. Palitha T.B. Kohona
Secretary / Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic Building
Colombo 01
Sri Lanka
Fax: 94-11-5357407 / 2446091 / 2333450
Email: sfa@formin.gov.lk

3. Mr. C.R. De Silva
Attorney General
Attorney General's Department
Colombo 12
SRI LANKA
Fax: +94 11 2 436421
Email: attorney@sri.lanka.net

Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission (ua@ahrchk.org)

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Update
Document ID :
UP-104-2007
Countries :
Issues :
Document Actions
Share |
Subscribe to our Mailing List
Follow AHRC
Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.