‘Hypocrisy and double standards will undermine UNHRC’s legitimacy’:

Lankan envoy takes US under Secretary to task

by Manjula FERNANDO

Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam strongly objected to US Under Secretary Maria Otero’s comments at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Friday that Sri Lanka had failed to show progress on HR issues, warning that the hypocrisy and double standards of the US would undermine gravely the legitimacy of the Council.

“Only-two-and-a-half months since the publication of the LLRC report and three years after ending 30 years of terrorism and separatism, the US seems to be impatient,” Kunanayakam said.

Her comments were endorsed by key UNHRC members. The Chinese delegate who spoke before the Sri Lankan ambassador exercised her ‘Right of Reply’ saying “before criticising others you (US) should take a long and hard look at your own human rights record.”

The Chinese member said that no country can speak of a perfect human rights record and one must set an example before criticising others.

He said the Chinese delegation was deeply concerned over the US failure to address its own HR issues.

The Sri Lankan ambassador said she regretted the statement where ‘Ms. Otero has thought it fit to unilaterally develop and set forth values that would guide the workings of the HRC departing from its founding principles - universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity’. “This intentional departure aims at legitimising the politicisation of this Council and justify its approach in treating countries such as Sri Lanka.”

In making these comments on Sri Lanka, the US has overlooked the progress the country had made after a long drawn out battle against terrorism.

She said that due recognition and notice must be given to the fact that in Sri Lanka ‘Emergency regulations have been repealed, over 1,200 detainees released, one detention centre closed, apart from the 300 of over 11,000 former combatants who surrendered and have been rehabilitated and reintegrated into mainstream society, over 95 percent of the nearly 290,000 displaced persons have been resettled’ and significant progress made on land issues, implementation of the trilingual language policy, scaling down of HSZs and the demining and rehabilitation of child soldiers.

With regard to accountability, she said, two courts of inquiry and a board of inquiry has been set up by the Army and the Navy. A time-bound national HR action plan which has many synergies with the LLRC recommendations is also being implemented.

She said, “Sri Lanka will present its report during the second cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in October this year,” adding that this was the appropriate forum to discuss the progress various countries had made in promoting and protecting in human rights of all countries.

Following the US Under Secretary’s statement yesterday, the Head of the Non Aligned Movement also expressed support to Sri Lanka, criticising the US move.

Ms. Otero, however, fell short of mentioning anything about a US brokered resolution against Sri Lanka on Friday.