Commonwealth Secretariat Secretary General Kamalesh Sharma opined that
“Commonwealth is active in promoting commonwealth values in Sri Lanka such as
respect for human rights and free speech”. But this is questionable considering the
number of repressions against journalists and the free media which has resulted in
self-censorship by a majority of the media outlets. On the 28th of October, just weeks
before CHOGM 2013 is to begin, journalists who went to cover the unlawful
demolition of houses within the High Security Zones (HSZ) by the Sri Lankan
military were stopped and threatened. Their cameras were confiscated and they were
issued death threats. The same attitude was used by the military in threatening the
Tamil politicians who accompanied them. This included a Tamil Member of
Parliament who was also the owner of a media outlet. Further on the 30th of October,
representatives of the International Federation of Journalists who had attended a
workshop hosted by the Free Media Movement in Colombo were detained and
questioned for many hours by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and told
to leave the country the very next day. These incidents illustrate that free speech and
expression is not really true and therefore what the Commonwealth Secretary General
sees as free expression is in fact a very limited and stifled mode of expression.
COMMONWEALTH PRECEDENTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS
The CMAG has acted to uphold the principles of the Commonwealth on the occasion
of military coups and in cases of human rights violations, not based on the
authoritative rule itself. These cases include Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Examining the
first case of Nigeria in 1995, CMAG took immediate action after the military
government executed key human rights leaders, in violation of Article 9 of the Harare
Declaration requiring upholding human rights. While the newly adopted 2013
Commonwealth Charter has not been cited in CMAG action as of yet, Sri Lanka could
most certainly qualify to be the first as it has executed many key community leaders,
civilians, and remains the country with the highest number of disappearances in the
world other then Iraq.
The case of Zimbabwe is very similar to that of Sri Lanka in regards to the history and
the action taken by the Commonwealth. In the early 1960’s-70’s, liberation groups
fought the majority white rule together but then had internal conflicts among
themselves leading to separation. Fast-forwarding to 1991 where the Harare
Declaration was adopted, the state limited freedoms as it controlled more of the media
and political po ????????????????????A???????????????????????????)???????????????????]????????????????????????????????
???????????((