• The huge amount of funds that are allocated for the UNHRC officers to  visit Sri Lanka could be put to a more positive use. These funds are  sufficient to construct thousands of houses  for the people in the North  and the East   

By Yohan Perera and Ajith Siriwardana   
Whilst highlighting that the UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka is illegal, Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardene told Parliament yesterday that it will continue to pursue its domestic mechanism which is aimed at 
bringing reconciliation.  

“We will continue to pursue the domestic mechanism despite the UNHRC vote against Sri Lanka. We will continue to engage with the UN and its agencies as we have been doing for decades,”he said.

 The Minister was making a special statement in the House explaining the Government’s stand on the resolution which was approved by the UNHRC on March 23 2021.   

He also said that anyone could make a complaint to the Presidential Commission of Inquiry if there were violations of human rights or whether any member of the security forces had wilfully killed any innocent civilian. “Supreme Court is the utmost authority of Sri Lanka’s Judiciary. That is why we have appointed a Supreme Court Judge to head the Presidential Commission of Inquiry,” he said.   

We will continue to pursue the domestic mechanism despite the UNHRC vote against Sri Lanka. We will continue to engage with the UN and its agencies as we have been doing for decades

“The UNHRC resolution was illegal and Sri Lanka considers this resolution as unwarranted, unjustified and a violation of relevant articles of the UN Charter Practical Article 2(7) and the relevant sections and against the mandate of the UN. Out of the 47 countries 22 voted for the resolution 11 against and 14 abstained. It is implicit of the voting result that a majority of the council did not support the resolution. The result of the vote gives an opportunity to assess whether UNHRC has acted in accordance with its mandate,” the Minister said.   
“The huge amount of funds that are allocated for the UNHRC officers to visit Sri Lanka could be put to a more positive use. These funds are sufficient to construct thousands of houses for the people in the North and the East and to provide COVID- 19 vaccines to people in Jaffna. I will deviate here to mention that there are many nations which are voicing and in need of COVID- 19 vaccines. There are a hundred nations which have not got a single vaccine,” he added.