Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said on Monday that the country anticipates fewer votes in the event of a resolution that is not agreed upon with core-sponsors in the upcoming United Nations Human Rights council (UNHRC) due to a change in member countries.
Diplomats have speculated that Sri Lanka will face a new resolution from the same core sponsors who tabled the resolution in March 2021 during the 51st UNHRC session, which will take place from September 12 to October 7 in Ganeva.
If we look at the composition from now until 2021, we may notice a decline in the overall number of
Minister Sabry told reporters Monday at the historic Foreign Ministry building that the country will receive more votes in the upcoming election than it did in 2021.
While 11 countries, including China, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, voted against the resolution in the 2021 UNHRC session, 22 countries voted in favour of passing the resolution, allowing the UN to gather evidence on the past human rights violations committed by Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is not cooperating with the resolution because it believes that gathering evidence from outside the country violates the country’s sovereignty and the constitution.
Sabry stated that Sri Lanka would cooperate with the resolution as long as the country’s sovereignty was not compromised.
Our goal is to provide effective, long-term answers; consequently, our last show will be a fact-finding mission.
mechanism that is open and fair to all parties involved, including victims and those accused of wrongdoing, he said.
After promising a truth-seeking mechanism in the vein of South Africa’s in 2016, Sri Lanka has repeatedly failed to deliver, calling into question the country’s credibility when it comes to addressing past human rights violations.
Thousands of members of Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority were killed over the course of a 26-year civil war, but the country has yet to take the steps promised to the international community in response to these allegations of human rights violations.
We seek comprehensive and long-term answers to the problems that have plagued so many people as a result of the injustices that have been committed in the name of justice.
conflict,” he said, referring to people of all backgrounds.
Sri Lanka has been in the midst of a political crisis since the last UNHRC session in March, when anti-government protesters rose up and forced the resignation of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brother, then-Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
It has been claimed that new President Ranil Wickremesinghe has used force against protesters.
Sri Lanka has failed to protect and ensure the rights of its citizens, so experts have warned that the UN Human Rights Council session in September will be more difficult.