Conflicting opinions on US second draft

Manjula Fernando

Sri Lanka will continue in its effort to enlighten the Human Rights Council member states of its progress when the final draft of Sri Lanka's Universal Periodic Review will be tabled for adoption on March 15.

An official source from Geneva said as the country concerned Sri Lanka gets 20 minutes to address the Council on UPR day. Human Rights Special Envoy Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe is scheduled to make a statement.

The reports on Sri Lanka and Peru will be considered from 9 am to 12 noon.The Troika, Benin, India and Spain which took part in the Sri Lanka's UPR working group review will have 20 minutes together to address the gathering.

There will be a further 20 minutes allocated for NGOs and the Human Rights Watch is listed as a speaker under this category.

Meanwhile the second draft of the US sponsored resolution was reportedly being circulated in Geneva. It was also reported that member states had expressed conflicting opinions about the contents in the draft copy when it was taken up for discussion by the US Permanent Representative to Geneva on March 8.

Speaking in support of Sri Lanka at the discussion session was Japan which opened the debate saying that Sri Lanka was cooperating with the international community.

Among others who rejected the resolution were China, Russia, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Thailand, Indonesia and Pakistan.

They have called the resolution as 'intrusive' and upheld that Sri Lanka was working hard on human rights.

UK, Germany, Canada, Austria and France have spoken in support of the resolution.

However when the EU raised that Sri Lanka had rejected many recommendations included in the UPR, many countries in the Europe as well as Africa have reportedly maintained that UPR was a voluntary exercise and the countries had the right to reject recommendations.

Of the 15 countries that voted in favour of Sri Lanka last year, only 11 remain in the Council this year and just 15 of the 23 who voted supporting the resolution have retained their membership.

Only four of the seven countries that abstained from voting, have voting rights this year.

It is not clear as to how the member states would vote in the event the resolution is moved against Sri Lanka this time.