Wednesday, 24 September 2014 00:55
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By Dharisha Bastians
New UN Human Rights Chief Prince Zeid will make his first presentation on Sri Lanka in Geneva today, when he tells the 47-member Human Rights Council about the scope and progress of the international investigation into allegations of major rights abuses during the war.
Navi Pillay’s successor as High Commissioner for Human Rights is expected to brief the UN Human Rights Council on the status of the probe by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights during today’s session.
A preview copy of his presentation reveals that Zeid will tell the Council that the UN investigative team is prioritising gathering and corroborating firsthand information in order to ensure an independent and impartial investigation.
“This will be a highly complex task given the time period and the gravity of the many cases and incidents to be investigated,” Zeid is expected to tell UNHRC members. The new Human Rights Chief will also express alarm about the ongoing intimidation, harassment and hate speech against civil society activists and human rights defenders in Sri Lanka.
He will also address two major areas of concern for the Sri Lankan Government with regard to the timeframe of the investigation - which the probe’s terms of reference revealed would include two years after the war up to November 2011 - and the alleged contradictions within the UN resolution adopted in March with regard to operative paragraphs. The High Commissioner will tell the Council that while the OHCHR has been repeatedly accused in Sri Lankan media of a lack of transparency for not revealing details of its investigation team or its sources, such confidentiality will be a necessary measure to protect anyone who provides information to the investigation, as well as to ensure the integrity of the investigation itself. Although the Government of Sri Lanka has expressed much hope that the new Jordanian High Commissioner for Human Rights will look more favourably upon Sri Lanka’s case at the Council, Zeid’s oral statement will come down hard on the Government’s threats to those who might testify before the UN panel and ongoing attacks on religious minorities.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission is likely to respond to Prince Zeid’s report to the Council. The oral report is to precede a full report by the team in March 2015.
