Ban's Panel of Experts calls for support and financial aid for HRC's Lanka investigation
Wednesday, 26 March 2014 00:50
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UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon's three member expert panel has called on the UN Human Rights Council member states to vote in support of the US sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka and provide financial backing to the international investigation it establishes.
Panel members Marzuki Darusman, Steven Ratner and Yasmin Sooka wrote in an op-ed in Canada's Globe and the Mail newspaper yesterday that "the peace in Sri Lanka about which the government brags is based on conquest and fear.
"This week, the Human Rights Council will vote on a resolution submitted by the United States and other states that would ask Ms. Pillay to conduct a UN investigation of alleged rights violations by the government and the LTTE.
It will need a budget and staff sufficient to the challenge of investigating the events of 2009," the three panelists said in the article.
They said Sri Lanka had deployed its diplomats worldwide to try to persuade the developing states on the Council that an investigation by the UN is an attack on Sri Lankan sovereignty. "But Sri Lanka has agreed to all the human rights standards that the UN investigation will apply. And a UN inquiry will ascertain the facts without prejudice," the PoE writes.
"Members of the Council should give the UN investigation not only their vote, but the financial support it will need to carry out a careful inquiry," they urged.
