• Sri Lanka would continue to reject outright the UNHRC’s attempt to collect, evidence from outside sources and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes

By Sandun A Jayasekera 

The government is to take a firm decision to remain tough and resilient on the 46/1 resolution adopted on the country at the March 2021 sessions of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) under the theme ‘Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka’, the Daily Mirror learns.   

The UNHRC is slated to review the progress of the strictures of the resolution 46/1 dictated to Sri Lanka at last year’s session at the forthcoming session 51 scheduled to be held next month in Geneva.   

A confidential note submitted by Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry, PC to the cabinet last week endorsed that Sri Lanka would continue to reject outright the UNHRC’s attempt to collect, evidence from outside sources and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes in Sri Lanka as adopted by the UNHRC at its regular session 46 at Geneva in March 2021.   

Sri Lanka would establish a high powered official committee comprising senior officials from the Presidential Secretariat, Prime Minister’s office and Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice, Finance, Defense and Attorney General’s Department, Sri Lanka Police and the Central Bank headed by Foreign Affairs Minister to identify a process to enhance reconciliation and human rights under a domestic legal framework, he said in his note to the cabinet.   

This committee will meet regularly during and after the 51st regular session of the UNHRC to be held in Geneva from September 12th to October 7th for a post-analysis of the proceedings of the UN body, Minister Sabry said.   
The top members of the committee will regularly meet leading figures of the UNHRC informally for talks on the sideline of the 51st session with a view to explore the best results possible for Sri Lanka from this global session.   
A team of senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will be sent to Geneva to assist the office of the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UNHRC during its 51st regular sessions next month, the note further said.   

The UNHRC in its 46th sessions in March last year adopted the resolution 46/1 on Sri Lanka after examining inter-alia the allegations on reported violation of human rights and other crimes.   

 The resolution went onto say that the ‘Human Rights Council recognized “the importance of preserving and analyzing evidence relating to violations and abuses of human rights and related crimes in Sri Lanka with a view to advancing accountability” and decided to strengthen the capacity of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) “to collect, consolidate, analyze and preserve information and evidence and to develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights or serious violations of international humanitarian law in Sri Lanka to advocate for victims and survivours and to support relevant judicial and other proceedings including in Member States with competent jurisdiction”.