Protest in Geneva against UN human rights chief’s report on SL

The World Patriotic Lankan Forum has organized a protest against the latest report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).

The protest was held yesterday (10) in front of the headquarters of UNHRC in Geneva.

The protesters urged the international community to refrain from pressurizing Sri Lanka unnecessarily and expressed their displeasure over the latest report by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.

Prof Channa Jayasumana, an executive member of the forum, stated that the High Commissioner’s report is an unnecessary intervention to the internal matters of Sri Lanka.

Speaking on the United Kingdom’s attempt to bring a fresh resolution against Sri Lanka, he said that the UK does not have any moral or ethical right to bring such resolution.

In the report, the OHCHR had stated the “lack of progress” shows that the situation of human rights in Sri Lanka should remain firmly on the agenda of the UN Human Rights Council.

The High Commissioner had urged the Council to remain closely engaged with the Government of Sri Lanka and to continue to monitor developments in the country.

The report said that “A preliminary assessment of the information received indicates that there are reasonable grounds to believe that accounts of unlawful abductions and detention and of torture, including incidents of sexual violence against men and women, are credible, and that such practices might be continuing in northern Sri Lanka.”

She has said that such allegations should be the subject of prompt, effective, transparent, independent and impartial investigations,” the report said.

The High Commissioner had also expressed her concern at the appointment, on 9 January 2019, of Major General Shavendra Silva as the Chief of Staff of the Sri Lanka Army.