UNHRC Urged To Push For Timetable

The UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has been urged to push Sri Lanka for a timetable for implementing the recommendations in resolution 30/1 when a new resolution is submitted at the 34th session which begins in Geneva next week.

In a letter to the Permanent Missions in Geneva, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has sought support in ensuring that the upcoming consideration of Sri Lanka’s progress toward implementing its commitments under United Nations Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 accurately and substantively reflects the situation within the country.

This includes both progress to date and the significant challenges remaining. At the end of this letter, we outline what we would consider to be the minimum key elements for a credible follow-up resolution,” the letter states.

HRW noted that the resolution, adopted by the Council in October 2015 through consensus, contains 25 key undertakings by the Sri Lankan Government across a range of human rights issues.

“We acknowledge at the outset the positive steps taken by the Government to date. Four UN Special Procedures, plus the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, have visited Sri Lanka since the resolution was adopted. By all accounts, their visits received Government cooperation, and they were unhindered in their movements and meetings. Two nationwide consultations have been carried out, one on constitutional reform and the other on transitional justice. The Government has released some reports from previous government commissions of inquiry into wartime abuses, and established coordination offices to deal with transitional justice and reconciliation issues. Importantly, the Government in May 2016 ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance,” the letter said.

However, HRW said it was concerned about the Government’s actual willingness to fully implement all aspects of resolution 30/1.

HRW says an additional note of concern on Sri Lanka’s progress on transitional justice is its ongoing resistance to any foreign involvement in the four mechanisms.

HRW says it is imperative that the Council remain fully engaged with the process until the commitments Sri Lanka made to the Council and UN member states and its own people through its co-sponsorship of resolution 30/1 are fully met.