Sri Lanka rejects UN Resolution 51/1 again and external evidence-gathering mechanism

Sri Lanka´s Permanent Representative to UN Ambassador Himalee Arunatilaka addressing the 57th Session of the HRC following the presentation of country specific report. 

Sri Lanka once again strongly rejected Resolution 51/1 and the external evidence-gathering mechanism established within OHCHR - "Sri Lanka Accountability Project" 

Addressing the 57th Session of the Human Rights Council yesterday following the Presentation of the Comprehensive Report on Sri Lanka by the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Sri Lanka´s Permanent Representative to UN Ambassador Himalee Arunatilaka noted that "this unproductive and unwarranted mechanism exceeds the Council's mandate, contradicts its founding principles, and polarizes the Council, undermining the progress the country has made domestically,"

The selective and disproportionate focus on handpicked developing countries while ignoring critical situations elsewhere is unacceptable. We urge the Council to avoid politicization and double standards, and to focus on dire humanitarian situations that require urgent action to maintain its credibility, she stressed.

Ambassador Arunathilaka also claimed that it is most surprising that the report steps far out of its mandated sphere of human rights to comment on macroeconomics as well as financial and budgetary issues under sovereign parliamentary purview. 

"Contrary to the reaction of the rest of our international partners, it projects a negative overview for Sri Lanka’s future, fails to recognize social stabilization and the preservation of parliamentary democracy overcoming recent severe challenges, the return to normalcy with the restoration of food, energy and public services and stability arising from significantly improved outlook," she said.

It makes no mention of the brutal acts of terrorism and human rights violations committed by the LTTE, including child recruitment, suicide bombings, the assassination of democratically elected MPs and leaders in Sri Lanka and abroad, and the disruption of democratic rights and freedoms of the people, especially in the North and the East, she noted.