Lanka’s UPR before UNHRC today

• Mahinda Samarasinghe to address Council again; expected to react to US resolution

Sri Lanka’s Universal Periodic Review report is scheduled to be taken up and adopted at the 22nd Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva at 3 p.m. Geneva time today.

Sri Lanka’s UPR, which took place in November last year in Geneva, was overseen by a troika of nations including India, Spain and Benin.

Head of the Sri Lanka Delegation to the 22nd Session of the Council, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe will also address the UNHRC when the country’s UPR is taken up. Minister Samarasinghe is expected to respond officially to the second US sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka that was tabled at the Council last Friday (8).

The second ‘procedural’ resolution follows up on the UNHRC’s call for Sri Lanka to address accountability and reconciliation issues post war and finds the Government’s National Action Plan on Reconciliation to be inadequate in dealing with major areas that have not been addressed.

Samarasinghe last addressed the Council in its opening week during the High Level segment, when he severely criticised UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, drawing a sharp response from the German Delegation to the UN in Geneva that came to her defence. The Minister flew back to Colombo following his first address and returned to Geneva earlier this week.