Dinesh to leave for Geneva tomorrow to address UNHRC

Minister of Foreign Relations Dinesh Gunawardena will leave for Geneva on Tuesday morning (25) morning to address the 43rd session at United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, on February 26 and 27. Minister Gunawardena, who will head the Sri Lankan delegation in Geneva, will formally inform the UNHRC that Sri Lanka will withdraw its co-sponsorship of UNHRC Resolutions 40/1 and 30/1.  

During the sessions, Minister Gunawardena is to meet the Director General of the International Labour Organisation, Human Rights Minister of the United Kingdom, Secretary General of the International Parliamentary Union,  Commissioner of the UN Human Rights Commission  and Sri Lankans resident in Geneva. 

Meanwhile, ahead of the upcoming 43rd session of the UNHRC, which is scheduled to commence tomorrow (24), Foreign Secretary Ravinatha Aryasinha briefed the President of the HRC Ambassador Elisabeth Tichy-Fisslberger on the decision of the Government of Sri Lanka to withdraw its co-sponsorship of Resolution 40/1 of March 2019 on ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’, which also incorporates and builds on preceding Resolutions 30/1 of October 2015 and 34/1 of March 2017, the Ministry of Foreign Relations said in a statement. 

The Foreign Secretary who is presently in Geneva, informed the President on Friday (21) that the Cabinet of Ministers had on Wednesday approved this decision following a cabinet paper submitted by Foreign Relations Minister Dinesh Gunawardena. The decision had also been presented to the Parliament on Thursday. He also informed her that Minister Gunawardena will formally inform the Council Members on the Government’s decision when he addresses the High Level Segment of the Council, on February 26. Minister Gunawardena who will also respond to the Oral Update on Sri Lanka by the High Commissioner on February 27 is scheduled to meet the High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, during his stay in Geneva.

The HRC President was also informed by the Foreign Secretary that on the eve of the decision being taken by the Cabinet, the Ambassadors of the ‘core group’ that had moved the resolution, who were resident in Colombo (the UK, Germany and Canada), had also been briefed by Minister Gunawardena.