COLOMBO: Quashing speculation that the UN is going soft on Sri Lanka after the electoral defeat of the country’s hawkish President Mahinda Rajapaksa in January, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, told the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Monday, that he is very much engaged in pursuing grave issues pertaining to the island nation.
In his opening remarks at the 29th Session of the UNHRC, Zeid said that his continued engagement will be on the “need for transparent and inclusive processes to develop credible mechanisms for accountability and reconciliation.”
Zeid added that the said process should be developed ahead of his report to the September session of the UNHRC. However, Prince Zeid sounded generally hopeful about progress in Sri Lanka. “The new Government in Sri Lanka has passed a constitutional amendment which, if implemented appropriately, brings renewed hope for democracy and the rule of law. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and I will encourage the Government of Sri Lanka to consult broadly with all political parties, civil society, and above all victims and their families, to ensure full national support and ownership of these processes,” he said.
Meanwhile, US Representative Eric Richardson told the UNHRC that Washington “commends the people of Sri Lanka for restoring democratic institutions and combating corruption, and urges the government to continue on its path of ensuring accountability and reconciliation.”
But indicating that the US has not sidelined the High Commissioner’s report on Sri Lanka, which was to be presented in March, Eric said, “We look forward to reading the UNHRC’s report on Sri Lanka in August.”
Lanka’s Record
The Maithripala Sirisena government had promised the UN and the US that it will set up an independent domestic mechanism to inquire into charges of war crimes before the September session of the UNHRC. This was the condition on which the US had agreed to refrain from urging the Human Rights Commissioner to present to the UNHRC his damaging report on Sri Lanka in March. However, the Lankan government is yet to set up the promised independent domestic mechanism to inquire into the charge of war crimes.
