The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) has adopted a new resolution extending the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights’ (OHCHR) mandate on Sri Lanka for two more years. However, pro-LTTE groups criticised the new resolution alleging that the text had been diluted.
The resolution was adopted on Tuesday (07) at the Geneva-based UNHRC without a vote.
Sponsored by the UK, Canada, Malawi, Montenegro and North Macedonia, and co-sponsored by 22 other countries, including Germany, Switzerland and Ireland, the resolution gave the go ahead for the OHCHR’s evidence-gathering project on Sri Lanka and requests further updates through 2027.
The new resolution has welcomed the NPP government’s stated commitments to reconciliation, devolution and anti-corruption reforms. The resolution urged the government to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act, amend the Online Safety Act and ensure independent investigations into major human rights cases. The resolution also stressed the importance of resourcing exhumations at mass-grave sites and the effective functioning of the Office on Missing Persons.
TNA sources said that the new resolution differed from Resolution 30/1, passed in October 2015, which stressed the importance of the participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers and authorised prosecutors and investigators in a Sri Lankan judicial mechanism.