Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Sri Lanka’s crumbling democracy...

It is disappointing that Sri Lanka, a country with such a serious democratic deficit, is chairing the Commonwealth for the next two years. All signs indicate Sri Lanka is descending into authoritarianism, and much work is needed if democracy is to be saved.

Given Sri Lanka’s chairmanship, it is not clear what the values and principles of the Commonwealth actually are. At November’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Colombo, many heads of state chose not to attend. Mauritius has even given up its right to host CHOGM in 2015, and the event is now slated to be held in Malta. Of those who did participate, British Prime Minister David Cameron made the most noise.

Sri Lanka continues to face a human rights crisis of epic proportions. The continued erosion of the rule of law, impunity, the government’s blatant unwillingness to implement the most meaningful recommendations from the final report of its own reconciliation commission (the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission), and the recent unconstitutional impeachment of the chief justice underscore this.

Sri Lanka is no longer a semi-democratic country — it is a dying ‘democracy on life-support’. Full story...

Related posts:
  1. Sri Lanka: a shambolic Commonwealth summit...
  2. Outcry over Sri Lanka clouds Commonwealth summit...
  3. Sri Lanka's shame: the country has no business hosting an event meant to...
  4. Sri Lanka case study: the 28-year-old man beaten to death in prison...
  5. Hundreds of grim reapers protest at Cameron's stance on Sri Lanka...
  6. Commonwealth apathy over Sri Lanka is only to be expected...
  7. Commonwealth giving Sri Lanka carte blanche for human rights abuses...

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