Sri Lanka remains ‘priority country’ in UK human rights report

Sri Lanka remains a priority country in the United Kingdom’s Annual Human Rights Report 2017. Sri Lanka is one of 30 ‘Human Rights Priority Countries’ (HRPCs); countries where the UK has serious human rights concerns and hopes to engage positively to develop human rights performance. 

The report acknowledges that there has been limited progress in the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.  Particular concerns highlighted include attacks on minority communities and the slow delivery of key human rights and reconciliation commitments. 

“The UK remains concerned by the lack of progress on introducing legislation that protects women and LGBT people from discrimination.” 

The UK works with the government of Sri Lanka to support reconciliation and human rights. This continued engagement aims to strengthen democracy and the rule of law through support for police reform, demining, inter-faith dialogue and mediation and the UN’s Peacebuilding Priority Plan, the British High Commission said.   

The Report underlines the UK’s desire to work positively with countries to help them improve their human rights performance. 

The 30 HRPCs are: Afghanistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Burma, Burundi, Central African Republic, China, Colombia, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Israel and the Occupied Territories, Libya, Maldives, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.

The Minister for Human Rights Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon, publishes the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s 2017 Annual Human Rights and Democracy Report.

The report is a barometer for the global human rights picture with particular emphasis on the FCO’s 30 Human Rights Priority Countries. The report also focuses on how the UK is working to protect and promote human rights across the world.

It covers the period from January to December 2017.

The UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) began publishing the Annual Human Rights Report in 1998 and it is now also published online.