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High-powered delegation to Geneva
View(s):External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris will lead Sri Lanka’s delegation and address the UN Human Rights Council main segment on March 5, just two days after the sessions begin, a senior official said yesterday.The External Affairs Ministry official said other members of the delegation were yet to be named. It is expected to include Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga, Monitoring MP of the EAM Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, External Affairs Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne, Attorney General Palitha Fernando, officials of his Department and the EAM.
As a minister leading the delegation, Dr. Peiris will be entitled to make a 20-minute speech. He is to reiterate the Government’s appeal for more time, five years from July 2012, to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission. This date is the occasion when such proposals came to be implemented. In the event of an official leading such a delegation, the time allotted is just two minutes.
The decision to ask Dr. Peiris to lead the Sri Lanka delegation will see the exclusion of Plantation Industries Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe who has been the President’s Special Envoy on Human Rights. It was Mr. Samarasinghe who led the Sri Lanka delegation last year and spoke during the main segment.
The UNHRC’s 25th sessions begin on March 3. However, the US-backed resolution to be sponsored by a number of countries is to be taken up on a date during the third week of March, according to diplomatic sources in Colombo.