AKD’s govt raises concerns over inconsistent HR standards at UN Council

Colombo, March 04 (Daily Mirror) - Sri Lanka has expressed concerns over the inconsistent application of human rights principles by the United Nations Human Rights Council, marking the first update on human rights from the country under the leadership of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake's new government.

“We remain steadfast in our belief that national ownership with gradual reforms, is the only practical way forward to transformative change,” Himalee Arunatilaka, the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva said yesterday (3) at the 58th Session of the Human Rights Council following the Oral Update on Sri Lanka by the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

“We regret the continuing inconsistent application of human rights principles through the work of the Council. This has resulted in the erosion of trust in the human rights architecture making countries less likely to respect the noble purposes for which the Human Rights Council was created,” she said.

She also said that Sri Lanka has consistently spoken out against country specific resolutions that do not have the concurrence of the country concerned. “We have reiterated our rejection of Resolutions 46/1, 51/1, and 57/1 and the external evidence gathering mechanism on Sri Lanka that has been set up using these divisive and intrusive resolutions.”

“The external evidence gathering mechanism on Sri Lanka 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,” she added.