Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe says Sri Lanka has been able to secure many victories by defeating the motions against the country brought through the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The ability of Sri Lankan delegation to act as a group and to face the charges courageously has enabled to record this victory. The Minister at a media briefing in Colombo today said that his group which stayed in Geneva for a period of three weeks on the instructions of the President, received strong support from the foreign ministry as well as from the ambassadors. It has been able to thwart the attempts of the chairperson of the council to present the Darusman report to the human rights council for discussion.
The Minister added that the intelligent and active measures taken by himself and other ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa and G.L. Peiris as well as former attorney general Mohan Peiris have enabled to block the efforts of the chairperson.
The darusman report is a document prepared by a person named by the UN Secretary General submitted for the purpose of enlightening the secretary general. The Minister said his group as well as foreign envoys have pointed out that there is no civilised or legal rights to submit such an unofficial report for discussion at the human rights council. Sri Lanka has also been able to defeat a proposal presented by Canada to discuss the presidential commission lesson learnt and reconciliation for discussion at the human rights council session in next March.
SLBC