This segment does not specifically involve the Navy, but all our Armed Forces. In the 1990s the State was involved in a war it did not want, was not prepared for and ill-equipped for. The result was that the Military came in for very bad criticisms and the Government was under heavy pressure to "rein in" the Military which (however justly or unjustly) was seen to be be acting contrary to International Humanitarian Law (IHL). Thus the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) was invited to train the Military in this area: the subject being considered a professional one.
Along with this, another initiative was launched: education in Human Rights. Human Rights (HR) went far beyond the battle field into Civil Society and had to be handled by an educational institution. The Government selected the Law Faculty of the Colombo University as the Faculty had a self-financing unit called the Centre for Studies in Human Rights (CSHR). The Canadian Institution for Development Administration (CIDA) provided funds and CSHR advertised for a Project Manager. I was chosen.
I worked under difficult but rewarding conditions for about seven years and will not describe it in detail. Finally we achieved the goals I set: (1) For the Army to establish a Directorate of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, (2) For ICRC and CSHR to conduct 2-week residential for military Trainers in these areas, and (3) For CSHR to produce a comprehensive Manual for these Trainers.
The Manual, ARUNODAYA, was a two-volume work which I was Editor-in-Chief. The contentious subject of how the Army had acted in violation of professional and ethical norms was handled in a Chapter by the Army's Legal Branch. Immediately after that were two Chapters by me where I tried to trace how and why things went wrong and how they can be corrected using the Army. Navy and the Air Force Acts. What follows are those two Chapters
The CSHR published a great many other books, though none so ambitious in scope. The next most important one was about the Doctrine of Command Responsibility, titled Catching the Big Fish. When this was launched I was honoured to be asked to present it to a prestigious audience at the BMICH. What I had to say that day is also presented here.