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UN team to meet civil society groups
A United Nations delegation visiting Sri Lanka sequel to the US-backed resolution at the Human Rights Council will meet civil society groups to obtain their views on human rights and related issues.
The government, which changed its earlier stance not to allow such a delegation to visit Sri Lanka, has now agreed to allow the delegation to seek varying views. The civil society groups include those that were in Geneva last week to provide a response to the National Report for the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) submitted by the government.
Cynthia Veliko, spokesperson for the United Nations office in Colombo, told the Sunday Times that the delegation would be in Sri Lanka from September 14 to 20. She, however, declined to divulge the team’s programme.
The three-member team from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will be led by Hanny Megally, Chief of the Asia Pacific, Middle East and North Africa branch and includes Oscar Solera from the Rule of Law Unit and Aswa Petra, Desk Officer for Sri Lanka.
High on the agenda for the team is a meeting with the Consortium of Humanitarian Agencies in Sri Lanka, the umbrella organisation for a number of NGOs. Some members of the Consortium were in Geneva last week to voice their strong response to Sri Lanka’s National Report on the UPR.
Among other groups the UN team will meet are representatives of the National Peace Council, Home for Human Rights and Muslim Aid.
Among those from the government side meeting them will be Parliamentarian Rajiva Wijesinha, who is also advisor to the President on reconciliation.
Spokesperson Veliko said there were no immediate plans for UN Human Rights High Commissioner Navanethem Pillay to visit Sri Lanka.
The UN resolution in March this year encouraged the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant special procedures mandate holders to provide, in consultation with, and with the concurrence of the Government of Sri Lanka, “advice and technical assistance on implementing” the provisions of the resolution. It also called upon the High Commissioner for Human Rights to present a report on the provision of such assistance to the Human Rights Council during its 22nd sessions in March next year.
Among other matters, the resolution called upon the Government of Sri Lanka to implement the “constructive recommendations made in the report of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. It also called upon the government to take all necessary additional steps to fulfil its relevant legal obligations and commitment to initiate credible and independent actions to ensure justice, equity, accountability and reconciliation for all Sri Lankans.
Minister protests, EAM secretary retracts statement
External Affairs Ministry Secretary Karunatilleke Amunugma has been forced to retract what he told the Sunday Times last week – that no minister will lead the Sri Lanka delegation to the UN Human Rights Council where Sri Lanka’s National Report will come up for discussion under the Universal Periodic Review (UPR).
Mr. Amunugama also said last week that the Sri Lanka delegation would be led by Ravinatha Aryasinha, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva.
On Friday, Sarath Dissanayake, Public Communications Director General in the External Affairs Ministry, claimed that Mr. Amunugama’s statement that a minister would not be representing Sri Lanka was not “factually correct”. He said the Sri Lanka delegation to the UPR meeting to be held on November 5 was yet to be decided.
The Sunday Times learnt that Mr. Amunugama had been directed to retract his statements after Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, the President’s special envoy on human rights issues, lodged a protest with Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga.
It was Minister Samarasinghe who formulated Sri Lanka’s National Report. He was to lead a Sri Lanka delegation and defend the report over which criticism has already been levelled by NGO groups. During the Universal Periodic Review in 2008, the last one to be held, Mr. Samarasinghe led the Sri Lanka delegation.
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