{"id":30607,"date":"2014-06-13T18:54:41","date_gmt":"2014-06-13T22:54:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30607"},"modified":"2014-06-13T18:54:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-13T22:54:41","slug":"un-human-rights-commissioner-navanetham-pillay-deeply-regretssri-lanka-defying-un-hrc-resolution-by-refusing-to-cooperate-with-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=30607","title":{"rendered":"UN Human Rights Commissioner Navanetham Pillay ” Deeply Regrets”sri Lanka Defying UN HRC Resolution by Refusing to Cooperate with Investigation."},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

Dharisha Bastians<\/strong><\/p>\n

UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay has expressed \u2018deep regret\u2019 about Sri Lanka\u2019s announcement that it will not cooperate with the investigation into alleged war crimes and major rights violations during the last seven years of the war, to be launched by her Office next month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe High Commissioner deeply regrets the Government\u2019s categorical statement to the Human Rights Council on Tuesday that it will not cooperate with the investigation, thereby defying the express call of the Human Rights Council in Resolution 25\/1 for the Government to cooperate with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) investigation,\u201d OHCHR Spokesman Rupert Colville told the Daily FT.<\/p>\n

Colville said there have been other instances when UNHRC-mandated investigations have been carried out without the cooperation of the Government Concerned.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cOHCHR has well-tested methodologies in such cases,\u201d the Spokesman added.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva told the Council on Tuesday that the Government was categorically rejecting the Resolution adopted in March, and the \u201ccomprehensive investigation emanating from it\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, the Government has since decided to debate the issue in Parliament for a decision on whether Sri Lanka should cooperate with the investigators.<\/p>\n

High Commissioner Pillay had written to the Sri Lankan Government on 5 May, expressing hope that it would cooperate fully with the investigation, including by providing the investigation team with regular access to the country, and by sharing information and interacting regularly with the team in Geneva, Colville told the Daily FT.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe wrote to the Government again on 5 June, laying out the parameters of the investigation and providing details about the team that is being assembled to carry it out,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n

According to the OHCHR Spokesman, Pillay has also decided to appoint a small number of senior external experts to advise and support the investigation team. \u201cHowever, since this is an OHCHR-run investigation, rather than in independent commission of inquiry, they will not lead it,\u201d Colville explained.<\/p>\n

The Spokesman for Pillay\u2019s Office said that in addition to providing expert guidance, they will accompany the investigation process and provide independent verification of the investigation\u2019s integrity.<\/p>\n

\u201cContrary to numerous speculative reports appearing in the Sri Lankan media, OHCHR is currently still in discussion with a number of possible senior experts to ascertain their availability and interest, and no one has yet been officially appointed to such a role,\u201d Colville added.<\/p>\n

He said once the experts\u2019 role has been confirmed, Pillay would inform the Government of Sri Lanka of their identity.<\/p>\n

Former New Zealand Governor General, Dame Silvia Cartwright, has been unofficially named as one of the \u2018senior experts\u2019 enlisted by the OHCHR for the Sri Lanka probe and her name appeared in local press reports this week.<\/p>\n

Colville said the Sri Lanka investigation team would meet for the first time in July, in Geneva, including the experts picked by High Commissioner Pillay.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team will consist of 12 staff, including investigators, two forensics experts, a gender specialist, a legal analyst and various other staff with specialised skills. The Coordinator is Sandra Beidas, a senior OHCHR staff member with more than 20 years\u2019 experience in the field and extensive expertise in conducting human rights investigations,\u201d he explained.
\nThe investigators will have a budget of $ 1,192,000 for their work in 2014, after the sum was approved by the UN Advisory Committee on Administration and Budget Questions in New York on 3 June, Colville confirmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs per usual practice, the OHCHR will ensure that the Government of Sri Lanka has the opportunity to provide comments on both the oral and comprehensive report of the investigation before they are issued,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Sri Lanka flays international \u2018prophets of doom\u2019:Ambassador Aryasinha hails Govt.\u2019s humanitarian reliefprocess before UNHRC<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lanka had disproved the \u2018prophets of doom\u2019 that feared the Government would be unable to deliver on the daunting humanitarian challenges it faced post-war, the country\u2019s Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, told the Human Rights Council\u2019s 26th Session on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cFears were expressed that malnutrition, disease and death would be rampant in the IDP villages, that the Government would not be interested in demining, that IDPs would be \u2018incarcerated\u2019 indefinitely, that the LTTE ex-combatants would not be released,\u201d Sri Lanka\u2019s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha told the Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cHowever, the verifiable ground realities on each these counts have proven that these fears were misplaced,\u201d he said in the Government\u2019s official response to the report of the UN Special Rapporteur for IDPs, Chaloka Beyani who referenced Sri Lanka in his speech before the Council on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The Sri Lankan Government had not only delivered humanitarian assistance post-conflict, but also in the war years, sending food supplies and paying public servant salaries, even in LTTE controlled areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has been the hallmark of the Government\u2019s approach to its citizens in the former conflict affected areas during the entirety of the conflict. It would be recalled that even during the conflict, the Government of Sri Lanka continued to supply food, medicines and other essential requirements to its citizens in the former LTTE dominated areas, fully cognizant that a large part of it was confiscated and stockpiled by the terrorists,\u201d the Sri Lankan envoy told the Council.<\/p>\n

These efforts had been hailed by Beyani\u2019s predecessors, Aryasinha said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf late, there appears to be a new tendency by these same sections of the international community to undervalue and downplay these tremendous humanitarian efforts of the Government of Sri Lanka, as though this has been an easy or negligible feat,\u201d Aryasinha charged.<\/p>\n

He said that those who seek to downplay the Government\u2019s humanitarian achievements \u201ckeep shifting goal posts\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey show disrespect not only to Government of Sri Lanka and its domestic and international partners whose steadfast commitment to this task has made these achievements possible, but also to those who have at last emerged from the suffering caused by 30 years of terrorist conflict,\u201d Ambassador Aryasinha added.<\/p>\n

Navi Pillay\u2019s office slams criticism of Senior Coordinator Sandra Beidas<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pillay\u2019s Office has strongly objected to what it called the \u2018campaign of defamatory comments\u2019 aimed at Sandra Beidas, the senior coordinator appointed to run the OHCHR probe on Sri Lanka.
\nOHCHR Spokesman Rupert Colville told the Daily FT that the campaign had begun shortly after Beidas\u2019 identity as coordinator of the investigation team had been made known to the Sri Lankan Government by Pillay in her 5 June letter.<\/p>\n

Colville explained that Sandra Beidas\u2019 expulsion from South Sudan was related to the UNMISS Human Rights Division\u2019s mandated and legitimate activities to investigate allegations of violations.
\n\u201cWe believe her work in South Sudan fully complied with the professional standards of human rights staff working in an integrated mission such as UNMISS,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Spokesman added that Beidas\u2019 extensive and varied field experience fully justifies her appointment as head of the current investigation team on Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

COurtesy:DailyFT<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dharisha Bastians UN Human Rights Chief Navi Pillay has expressed \u2018deep regret\u2019 about Sri Lanka\u2019s announcement that it will not cooperate with the investigation into alleged war crimes and major rights violations during the last seven years of the war, to be launched by her Office next month. \u201cThe High Commissioner deeply regrets the …<\/p>\n

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