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UNHRC: US, Lanka adopt ‘collaborative approach’
View(s):Sri Lanka has agreed with the United States to adopt a “collaborative approach” with regard to a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) sessions next month but there is still no text. Work on a draft document is likely to start in mid-September after the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) releases its investigative report on allegations of war crimes and other human rights abuses. The US has been the main co-sponsor of all resolutions since 2012 and it will float the first draft.
The OHCHR report will be presented to the Sri Lanka Government shortly and also presented to the UNHRC during its 30th sessions next month. On August 24, US Ambassador for Human Rights, Keith Harper, told the UNHRC that his Government plans to offer a new resolution on Sri Lanka. It would be a follow-up on the new Sri Lankan administration’s efforts “to promote reconciliation and accountability and on the release of the report of the OHCHR investigation request in HRC resolution 25/1″.
“We hope to work collaboratively with the new Government of Sri Lanka and key stakeholders on this text,” Mr. Harper said.
“The only factor we have agreed to is to adopt a collaborative approach at the 30th sessions of the Human Rights Council with regard to the resolution,” said Mahishini Colonne, the Foreign Ministry Spokesperson. “There is no draft text of a resolution at this point. The US delegation made a statement at the Organisational Session of the 30th HRC on August 24 in Geneva regarding the approach that will be followed, which is to work collaboratively with the new Government of Sri Lanka and key stakeholders on the text of the resolution.”
In an indication of where the US stands on the subject of a war crimes investigation, US Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights and Labour, Tom Malinowski, who accompanied US Assistant Secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs, Nisha Biswal, on an official visit to Colombo earlier this week, was reported as saying that a domestic investigation must have the trust of the minorities. He said that it must be acceptable to both the people of Sri Lanka and the international community but “that it need not be a completely international process.”