UN 'on the watchout' for governmet harrassment of rights activists

BY ATHULA VITHANAGE-17 FEBRUARY 2013

The UN human rights chief says that intimidation of rights defenders from Sri Lanka is been monitored.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said in London on Friday(15), that they are 'on the watchout'. She was speaking at the London School of Economics (LSE) on Freedom of Expression and Hate Speech.

A senior journalist from the audience brought to the notice of UNHCR chief that members and supporters of the government delegation to Geneva in 2012 intimidated visiting rights activists who challenged Sri Lanka's human rights record.

Rights defenders harassed

Lanka human rights defenders lobbying UNHRC sessions in 2012 March that adopted a resolution calling the Government to probe alleged abuses during the country’s civil war of Sri Lanka were subject to harrassment by many of the government delegation.

“During this Human Rights Council session, there has been an unprecedented and totally unacceptable level of threats, harassment and intimidation directed at Sri Lankan activists who had travelled to Geneva to engage in the debate, including by members of the 71-member official Sri Lankan government delegation,” said Ms. Pillay’s spokesperson, Rupert Colville, at a press briefing in Geneva, in March 2012.

Navi Pillay speaking in London on the eve of the March 2013 Human Rights Council session, said that she has already written to Foreign Minister GL Peiris about intimidation from government delegates as well as threats published on the ministry website last year.

Image courtesy: vikalpa.org | A Pro-regime demonstrator carrying a placard saying 'Drive away NGO vultures betraying the motherland for dollars' - Colombo, Sri Lanka, February 27, 2012