International right groups have urged continuous global scrutiny over Sri Lanka’s human rights violations after a day after resolution was passed to extend the United Nations to collect evidence of past and current abuses violations and crimes under international law committed in Sri Lanka for use in future prosecutions.
The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Wednesday (09) adopted the resolution to extend the term of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to collect evidence for past human rights abuses by another year.
The resolution was presented by a core group consisting of Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and is the first on human rights under the new president Anura Kumara Dissanayake who was elected as the president of the island nation last month.
“The Human Rights Council’s resolution on Sri Lanka is important for efforts to uphold fundamental rights in the country and to seek justice for past atrocities,” Lucy McKernan, the deputy Geneva director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.
“International action is needed in Sri Lanka so long as victims and their families are denied justice. The new government of President Dissanayake should reveal what happened to thousands of victims of enforced disappearance, end security agencies’ harassment of victims and human rights defenders seeking justice, and open credible investigations into alleged crimes that were blocked by previous governments.”
Babu Ram Pant, Deputy Regional Director for South Asia at Amnesty International, in a statement said the adoption of the UNHRC’s resolution underscores the continued need for international scrutiny on human rights concerns in Sri Lanka.
Rights groups urged to extend the resolution by two years, but it was extended only by a year. Sri Lanka before the adoption said it was against the resolution to extend the evidence gathering on past rights abuses.
“It was disappointing therefore that the government instead chose to continue past policy and express opposition to evidence gathering by the UN,” Pant said in a statement.
“This casts a shadow on the government’s willingness to utilise available resources to ensure accountability for serious human rights violations and risks perpetuation of deep-rooted impunity.”
“With this resolution, the international community should step up its engagement with the new Sri Lankan government towards meaningful progress on truth, justice and reparations.”
SRI LANKA OPPOSES, BUT WILL ENGAGE
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Himali Arunatilaka in ger statement said in line with the aspirations of the people, the new government under Dissanayake will prioritize integrity, and ethical governance including addressing issues of mismanagement and corruption that were at the root of the economic collapse.
She said the government will protect democracy and human rights of all citizens including addressing past issues while domestic mechanisms and processes that deal with reconciliation, accountability and justice will be credible and independent within the Constitutional framework, and a truth and reconciliation process that has the people’s trust will be operationalized.
“As we have repeatedly reminded this Council, setting up of this external evidence gathering mechanism within the OHCHR is an unprecedented and ad hoc expansion of the Council’s mandate, and contradicts its founding principles of impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity,” Arunatilaka said.
“No sovereign state can accept the superimposition of an external mechanism that runs contrary to its Constitution and which pre-judges the commitment of its domestic legal processes. Furthermore, many countries have already raised serious concerns on the budgetary implications of this mechanism given its ever-expanding mandate.”
“Notwithstanding our rejection of the Resolution, Sri Lanka will continue its longstanding constructive engagement with this Council including with regular human rights bodies, and all core Human Rights treaties to which we are party,” Arunatilaka said.