The Ministry of External Affairs wishes to inform the Diplomatic Missions, the United Nations and its Specialized Agencies and other International Organizations based in Colombo of several matters relating to the sequence of events involving Mr. Premkumar Gunaratnam and Ms. Dimuthu Attygalle.

These events have been the subject of extensive media attention during the last few days. Statements with regard to the matter have captured headlines in the media and have been the subject of vigorous comment by leaders of political parties, academics and civil society activists. All these persons have united in making a variety of grave allegations, the gist of which is to impute responsibility to the Government for an alleged abduction.

At the end of the 19^th Session of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam, taking the floor under the concluding general segment, affirmed that the US resolution against Sri Lanka constituted a negative precedent that challenged the core values of the Human Rights Council, and reflected a blatant case of politicization that ‘takes the Council hostage to the hidden agendas of the mighty’.

Ambassador Kunanayakam exposed the fact that no one within the Council was ignorant of the pressures exercised and the methods used to obtain support for a resolution whose list of co-sponsors, she said, constitutes a caricature of a divided world. She rejected all forms of unilateralism, threats, sanctions, blockades, conditionalities, and the orchestrated disinformation campaigns which, she said, aimed to diabolise Sri Lanka, and further pointed out that such measures would only bring dishonour to the resolution’s authors.

Observer States such as Venezuela, Zimbabwe and Pakistan also taking the floor under the same segment, expressed similar sentiments and reiterated support for Sri Lanka.

Link to webcast –http://www.unmultimedia.org/tv/webcast/2012/03/comments-by-observer-states-on-draft-resolutions-55th-meeting.html 

(Sri Lanka statement can be browsed at the following timing- 01:28:49)

Full Text of Statement:

Statement made by Mr Mohan Peiris under the thematic discussion on “Sharing of best practices and promoting technical cooperation: paving the way towards the second cycle of the universal periodic review”  

Madam President,

 We have been repeatedly reminded that the promotion and protection of human rights should be based on the principle of cooperation and genuine dialogue and aimed at strengthening the capacity of member states to comply with their human rights obligations for the benefit of all human kind. It urges States to cooperate with Governments in that process.

Madam President,

My delegation recalls Resolution A/HRC/S-11/2 adopted at the 11^th Special Session on Assistance to Sri Lanka in the promotion and protection of human rights which recognizes that the promotion and protection of human rights should be based on the principle of cooperation and genuine dialogue and aimed at strengthening the capacity of Member States to comply with their human rights obligations for the benefit of all human beings, and urges the international community to cooperate with the Government of Sri Lanka in its post-conflict reconstruction efforts.  

My delegation also recalls paragraph 4 of the GA Resolution 60/251 which established the HRC and importantly the principle that ‘advisory services, technical assistance and capacity building’, be ‘provided in consultation with and with the consent of member countries concerned’. 

In an unanticipated and impromptu right of reply at the Human Rights Council, Professor Rajiva Wijesinha pointed out that Amnesty International was part of the ‘band wagon’, that is now being built up. Recalling that Sri Lanka does not usually reply within the Council to nongovernmental organizations, Professor Wijesinha, said that he believed that a special exception needed to be made for Amnesty.

Dissecting the Amnesty International Report which was launched yesterday, Professor Wijesinha revealed that the cases dealt with in the Report were from an earlier period and did not justify the hype with which it was presented, suggesting that the situation in Sri Lanka is ‘really appalling’. Drawing from an earlier example of a report by Human Rights Watch, Professor Wijesinha drew attention to the subtle inconsistencies, and exaggerations incorporated into such reports.

Referring to efforts by the Asia Pacific Centre for Human Rights Commissions and the UN system to strengthen the Sri Lankan Human Rights Commission, the Professor expressed his regret that the Commission was not assisted, due to a suppression of the UN contracted report, which suggested such assistance.  

In conclusion, Professor Wijesinha affirmed that ‘the suggestion that we haven’t done anything in the past is complete nonsense’, and added that there was a need to better publicize these efforts. He ended by establishing that he hoped that the country would be able to show the Council and the world, that our approach to reconciliation, is a model.

Text of full intervention:

Taking the floor under the general debate of Item 3 (Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development), Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam affirmed that if the ‘Council is to remain credible, it must give equal attention to economic, social and cultural rights as to civil and political rights; to the collective dimension as to the individual dimension; to the international as to the national.’ She regretted that more than 25 years after the adoption of the Declaration on the Right to Development and the consensus achieved, obstacles were still being placed in the way of its implementation, depriving developing countries of their right to determine the type of society in which this inalienable right can be realized.’

Amidst Sri Lanka’s active engagement within the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam, in her capacity as Chairperson-Rapporteur of the United Nations Working Group on the Right to Development, presented to the Council, the Report of the Working Group. 

Drawing on the importance of the Declaration on the Right to Development, Ambassador Kunanayakam reminded the Council of the Declaration’s modernity and relevance in the context of today’s global challenges. Pointing out that she had on several occasions, affirmed the continued validity and modernity of the right to development, in the context of the economic, social, political, and ecological crisis, she further said that the situation at hand served as a reminder of the urgent need to make progress in the realization of the right to development.

The Ambassador also affirmed that the Declaration ‘advances a vision of development that is, at once, comprehensive, global, multidimensional, structural, and dynamic.’ She rightly pointed out that the Declaration provides the opportunity to achieve and maintain a sustainable development that will benefit both present and future generations. 

State delegations and Regional Groups (including the Non Aligned Movement and the African Group) took the floor during the General Debate to express appreciation and gratitude toward Ambassador Kunanayakam for her leadership and guidance through the Working Group’s deliberations.

Full Text of Statement:

In a wide ranging interview H.E. Tamara Kunanayakam, Ambassador/Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, explained the motivations of the West and mostly the United States for pushing a resolution against Sri Lanka: “What, in fact, are the US trying to tell us with their draft resolution? They are not saying that our LLRC report is bad. They are not saying that there is gross and systematic violations of human rights in Sri Lanka. What they are saying is that they don’t have confidence that we will implement the recommendations. […] They are judging our intentions, not the ground reality! This is unacceptable to most countries, because it gives a role to the Council that was never intended. Moreover, there is a general feeling that Sri Lanka is being punished for cooperating.”  

Ambassador Kunanayakam further stressed that: “A resolution on Sri Lanka will, many feel, be the ultimate test of the Council’s politicization. It will make it or break it.”  

Concluding on the potential outcome of the vote, Ambassador Kunanayakam said that: “We must not underestimate or overestimate our capacity! […] the battle will have to be fought to the very last minute”.  

Given below are the excerpts of the interview with Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations – Geneva