Stop Sri Lanka’s candidate getting elected to top UN legal body
- Post 14 May 2021
JDS joins hands with the International Truth and Justice Project (ITJP) in a global appeal calling to stop Sri Lanka’s chief justice during the first Rajapaksa regime getting elected to a top UN body entrusted with framing international law.
In November 2021, the UN General Assembly will elect 34 members to the International Law Commission for a five-year term beginning on 1 January 2023. Eight Asia-Pacific nationals will be elected from ten to sit among its 34 members.
In a breath-taking attempt to subvert international institutions and the rule of law, the Government of Sri Lanka has proposed Mohan Peiris as a candidate for election to the Commission, who is compromised by his failure to hold accountable the perpetrators of enforced disappearance, execution, torture and rape during his tenure as the country’s chief law officer.
JDS particularly calls upon media rights groups around the world to stand in solidarity with us against the nomination of a man who presided over a period in which journalists in Sri Lanka were abducted and disappeared, assassinated, brutally tortured and locked up just for doing their jobs.
Read full statement by ITJP and JDS, why members of the UN General Assembly should vote against Mohan Peiris.
© JDS
