While Sri Lanka faces heat at the Geneva sessions the Former Sri Lankan Permanent Representative there Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka has stated that national mechanisms of human rights are necessary to finally put to rest the calls for an international mechanism of accountability.
When asked whether Sri Lanka could put to rest the call for an international mechanism of accountability at the Geneva sessions the present Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Dr. Jayatilleka said, “The call for an international mechanism of accountability can be put to rest finally, only by a combination of strong, credible, independent and fully functioning national mechanisms of human rights and accountability, and successful post-war ethnic reconciliation, which builds a better, and more just Sri Lanka different from the one that spent half of its life as an independent nation, locked in war with and within itself”.
When asked whether Sri Lanka could put to rest the call for an international mechanism of accountability at the Geneva sessions the present Ambassador to France and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO Dr. Jayatilleka said, “The call for an international mechanism of accountability can be put to rest finally, only by a combination of strong, credible, independent and fully functioning national mechanisms of human rights and accountability, and successful post-war ethnic reconciliation, which builds a better, and more just Sri Lanka different from the one that spent half of its life as an independent nation, locked in war with and within itself”.
In an email interview Dr. Jayatilleka, who was the former Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva during the 2007-9 period, stated that “United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay is not vindictive; she is a human rights fundamentalist.” (Dianne Silva)
DM