Wednesday, 26 March 2014 00:41
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By Dharisha Bastians
Sri Lanka will have to brace for impact as UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay makes a presentation in Geneva today based on her fact-finding mission to the island last August.
Pillay will address the Council between 9 a.m. and 12 noon Geneva time, to present the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights’ report on Sri Lanka’s human rights situation, followed by a discussion on the US-sponsored resolution that calls for an investigation by her office into violations during the country’s civil war.
High Commissioner Pillay retires from office in August this year, making this in all likelihood her final presentation to the Council on Sri Lanka as head of the UN body for human rights.
Today’s report to the Council is expected to be a hard-hitting assessment by Pillay about Sri Lanka’s human rights record and its failure to address major allegations about violations of international humanitarian law during the last phase of the war.
At the conclusion of her seven-day fact-finding mission to Sri Lanka last year, Pillay said the country was heading in an “increasingly authoritarian direction”. In her written report to the Council earlier this month, the High Commissioner said that Sri Lanka’s failure to address human rights violations in the country was “fundamentally a lack of political will”.
The Government has accused the High Commissioner of bias towards the Sri Lankan State and insisted that she was not fit to lead an investigation into violations in the country.
The US draft resolution has called on the Office of the High Commissioner to launch an inquiry into violations during the period 2002-2009. Pillay will be out of office by the time the OHCHR is required to present its first report on the investigation to the Council in September this year.
