UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations human rights chief spoke out against the impeachment and removal of Sri Lanka’s Chief Justice, saying it is a “calamitous setback” for rule of law in the South Asian nation, as well as for accountability and reconciliation. Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake was served notice of her dismissal and removed from her chambers and official residence on Tuesday, in spite of a Supreme Court ruling that the parliamentary procedure to remove her violated the Constitution, according to the Geneva-based Office of the OHCHR.
“The removal of the Chief Justice through a flawed process – which has been deemed unconstitutional by the highest courts of the land – is, in the High Commissioner’s view, gross interference in the independence of the judiciary and a calamitous setback for the rule of law in Sri Lanka,” Rupert Colville, spokesperson for High Commissioner Navi Pillay, told reporters in Geneva,according to a news release issued at UN Headquarters in New York. “Sri Lanka has a long history of abuse of executive power, and this latest step appears to strip away one of the last and most fundamental of the independent checks and balances, and should ring alarm bells for all Sri Lankans,” he added.