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UNHRC report on Sri Lanka to go public on 8 March?

18 Feb 2019

By Easwaran Rutnam The much anticipated report on Sri Lanka by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights is likely to go public on 8 March, sources told The Sunday Morning on Friday. Sources at the Office of the High Commissioner in Geneva said that the date to make the report public had not yet been finalised, but it is likely to be released in the afternoon of 8 March. Prior to that, a copy of the report will be shared with the Sri Lankan Government to ensure it has time to study the report and prepare its response. When contacted by The Sunday Morning, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the report had not yet been shared with Sri Lanka. “We have not received the advanced copy of the report as yet,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Saroja Sirisena said. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the advanced copy will be shared with Sri Lanka closer to the date of making it public. “These reports are shared with the countries of concern in advance. This is a standard arrangement for all country-specific reports presented to the Human Rights Council. How far in advance varies. It could be a week or a few hours before publication,” an official at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights told The Sunday Morning. A delegation from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights was in Sri Lanka last week for talks with the Government and others. The delegation carried out talks with the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of Justice, and other officials on matters related to the implementation of the Resolution on Sri Lanka passed by the Human Rights Council in 2017. Minister of Ports, Shipping, and Southern Development Sagala Ratnayaka met with the delegation in his capacity as the Chief of Staff to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The delegation, which included UN Human Rights Office Director – Field Operations and Technical Cooperation Georgette Gagnon and UN Human Rights Office Equality and Non-Discrimination Branch Chief of the Rule of Law Mona Rishmawi, also discussed aspects related to the report on Sri Lanka by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. Delegation not finalised The report on Sri Lanka by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights will be formally submitted to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on 20 March. “In its Resolution 34/1, the Human Rights Council requested OHCHR to continue to assess progress on the implementation of its recommendations and other relevant processes related to reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka. Pursuant to the same resolution, the council will consider the report of OHCHR thereon (A/HRC/40/23), followed by a discussion on the implementation of council Resolution 30/1,” the Secretariat said. Council members will discuss the report and give their opinion on what they expect from Sri Lanka. A high-level delegation from Sri Lanka is expected to attend the session to give its response to the report and give assurances of implementing a time-bound action plan on human rights. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Sirisena said that the Sri Lankan delegation for the session, however, had not been finalised as yet. Some members of the Tamil Diaspora and human rights groups are pushing for tough action on Sri Lanka over its failure to ensure more progress in implementing the earlier UN Human Rights Council Resolution on Sri Lanka. Last week, the UK announced that the Core Group on Sri Lanka would be submitting a resolution on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, which begins later this month. At the Human Rights Council Organisational Meeting on Monday, UK Permanent Representative to the UN and WTO in Geneva Julian Braithwaite said that the Core Group on Sri Lanka – comprising Canada, Germany, Macedonia, Montenegro, and the UK – will present a resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka. New Resolution The Core Group will again be working in partnership with Sri Lanka and look to continue the cooperation which began in 2015 and maintain engagement with the council as Sri Lanka works towards the implementation of the commitments in HRC Resolution 30/1. However, he said the draft text would be procedural in nature and seek to extend further the process established by the HRC in 2015. Sri Lanka co-sponsored the earlier Resolution and is expected to co-sponsor the new Resolution as well. Sources at the Sri Lankan mission in Geneva however, said that the draft text of the new Resolution was not yet ready. Sri Lanka is lobbying to ensure the Resolution is in favour of the country and does not give room for extremists or hard-line nationalists to use it to push for Sri Lanka to be isolated from the international community. The deadline for the submission of draft resolutions to the UNHRC Secretariat is 1 p.m. Geneva time on Thursday, 14 March, 2019, the Secretariat said. Human rights groups and NGOs are already preparing to hold briefings on the sidelines of the main session in Geneva to gather support for a stronger resolution on Sri Lanka. TNA undecided In the past, Tamil political parties including the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have attended key sessions in Geneva and pushed for tough action on the Government. However, TNA Parliamentarian S. Sritharan told The Sunday Morning that the alliance had not yet met to decide the stand it would take on Geneva. “We were expected to meet last week to decide on Geneva, but no decision had been taken yet,” he said. The TNA is, however, expected to take a softer stance on Sri Lanka in Geneva as it is working with the United National Front (UNF) Government to address key issues faced by the Tamils in the North.

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