SL needs to be prepared to defend itself at UNHRC session: Samarasinghe
Thursday, 26 March 2015 01:17
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By Charumini de Silva
Sri Lanka has achieved considerable progress in implementing the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) and needs to be prepared to defend its record at the next session in Geneva, a senior minister said.
State Finance Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe said that the Government was very positive in wanting to show the progress it had made on recommendations in the LLRC report and asserted that Sri Lanka was lucky to get more time before a vote was taken at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
“Many claim that our economy is unstable, our stock market is down and so forth, but we must also remember that the good work done by this new Government helped to avoid international sanctions by getting the vote postponed to September at the UNHRC. If it was not postponed then we would have faced major economic issues with possible international sanctions,” he opined.
There are many initiatives that the country needs to take to fulfil the recommendations in the LLRC report action plan, thus it was crucial that the country started working on it and ensured that by September there was more progress, he said.
“We have compiled the action plan with timeframes and we have completed some of the sections while others are still pending. We definitely have to show progress with the LLRC report,” he added.
Commenting on some of the recent initiatives taken by the Government, Samarasinghe said that the distribution of land was a very positive step and likewise other recommendations too would be expedited.
Samarasinghe said it was commendable how President Maithripala Sirisena strengthened international relationships. “We must make use of the international relationships for the upcoming vote in Geneva so that we won’t end up with just 12 votes in our favour,” he quipped.
“I think the Presidential Secretariat will coordinate that and if I am asked to play a role in that I am quite prepared to do it. I’m available at anytime to do that because I believe in collective responsibility. After all, there’s no politics when it comes to human rights. I think I have the most amount of experience today in the political field. I’ve been associated with human rights since 1983, not just after I joined the Government in 2006 — that was just a continuation. If the Government wants to use my experience I’m always available on behalf of the country to do something genuine to contribute towards comprehensive reconciliation,” he revealed.
At present the Paranagama Commission has prepared a supplementary report and is waiting to present it to President Maithripala Sirisena on his return from China.
Since transparency and good governance are key concerns of the new Government, the Minister suggested that the report be made feely available to the public.
