The Special Envoy of the President for Human Rights Mahinda Samarasinghe addressing the Third Committee meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York today expressed Sri Lanka’s concerns about the transparency of the UN Human Rights Council.

The Minister addressed “the issue of transparency and fair dealing in relation to its support structure and ancillary offices, including its special procedures and mechanisms.” He recalled the incidents that took place in Geneva last month.   

He vociferously called on the European Union not to refer to the Darusman report as a credible document, as it had done during the proceedings of the Third Committee. “I would urge the EU to go back and read the document because the authors of the document themselves say that they did not have any authority for investigations and that they did not do an investigation in arriving at the conclusions in the report,” he said.   

He warned nations of the dangers of breaches in procedure on themselves. “This is a very dangerous precedent. Today it could be Sri Lanka tomorrow it could be another country in this Committee. This is why I talked about adhering to principles and this is why such documents should be resisted,” he said.

During his meeting with the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday the Minister had called on the international community and the UN not to point fingers at Sri Lanka but to give the country “time, support and opportunity” to achieve the countries post-war goals. (Dianne Silva)