SL opposes resolution passed by UNHRC

• Says it was tabled without Sri Lanka’s consent

By Sunil Jayasiri   

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution yesterday aimed at fostering reconciliation, accountability, and human rights in Sri Lanka, even though the new Sri Lankan government has dismissed it.    

The resolution, which was passed without a vote, extends the mandate of the Office of the High Commissioner in its resolution 51/1, by one more year.   

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka has expressed its rejection of the resolution while affirming its commitment to collaborate with the UN Human Rights Council. The Sri Lankan delegation in Geneva stated that the country opposes HRC resolution 51/1, as well as the earlier HRC resolution 46/1, which established an external evidence-gathering mechanism within the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).   

“We also disassociated from the Report of the High Commissioner, for the reasons outlined in our detailed response to this Council contained in document A/HRC/57/G/1. Resolution 51/1 was tabled without Sri Lanka’s consent as the country concerned, and was adopted by a divided vote. As such, any subsequent decision extending mandates established by this resolution lack consensus in the Council,” the Sri Lankan delegation said.   

“Setting up of an external evidence gathering mechanism within the OHCHR is an unprecedented and ad hoc expansion of the Council’s mandate, and contradicts its founding principles of impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity.”   

“No sovereign state can accept the superimposition of an external mechanism that runs contrary to its Constitution and which pre-judges the commitment of its domestic legal processes. Furthermore, many countries have already raised serious concerns on the budgetary implications of this mechanism given its ever-expanding mandate,” the delegation said.