Sri Lanka Report On March 26

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, December 29, 2013

The report on Sri Lanka by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay will be submitted to the UN Human Rights Council on March 26, the provisional agenda for the session states.

According to the agenda, the report on Sri Lanka will be open for discussion after it is presented and the Sri Lankan government is expected to express its views on the report at that time.

The 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council will commence on March 3 and go on till March 28 and any resolution presented will be adopted on the final day.

In an oral report on Sri Lanka submitted to the Council last September, Pillay set a deadline for the government to address human rights concerns by March 2014 in the absence of which she said the international community will have a duty to establish its own inquiry mechanisms.
Pillay had said that she had not detected any new or comprehensive effort to independently or credibly investigate allegations on Sri Lanka which have been of concern to the Human Rights Council.

She also called for continued attention on Sri Lanka by the UN Human Rights Council.

Britain has so far indicated it may sponsor a resolution on Sri Lanka during the March session if there is no progress on the human rights issue.
The government has however, said there has been progress and refused to agree to any deadlines.