Sri Lanka falling short of implementing the recommendations of its own Reconciliation Commission - ESTHER BRIMMER, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States
MORNING
26 February 2013
15 dignitaries address Human Rights Council on second day of high-level segment
ESTHER BRIMMER, Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States, said that the Council had to work to attain universality, dialogue, principles, and truth. In today’s networked world hate, insulting and intolerant speech could be marginalized and defeated only by encouraging positive and respectful expression. The pursuit of an honest, open dialogue among Member States was one of the themes which the United States had pledged to pursue and would continue to do so in the coming years. The Council’s creation of a working group on discriminator impediments to women’s human rights demonstrated its commitment to combating continuing gender bias in all its forms. By formally recognizing that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender men and women enjoyed the same rights as everyone else, the Council helped advance the true universality of human rights worldwide. Nevertheless, significant challenges continued to face the Council, including the outrageous attacks launched by the Assad regime on innocent civilians in Syria, the ongoing violation of human rights in the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea, Sri Lanka falling short of implementing the recommendations of its own Reconciliation Commission, and the unfair singling out of Israel, the only country with a stand-alone agenda item. The unfair and unacceptable bias to which Israel was subjected had to cease so that progress could be made towards establishing peace among Israelis and Palestinians.
VIDEO: SL CONTINUES TO FALL SHORT OF IMPLEMENTING LLRC RECOMMENDATIONS - US
The US in its opening address at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva stated that the Council’s work was remains unfinished as long as Sri Lanka continues to fall short of implementing the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations of the United States of America, Esther Brimmer stated that the Council’s work was not complete as long as Sri Lanka fails to address the underlying sources of its long standing ethnic conflict.
She confirmed that the US will introduce another resolution at the ongoing session on Sri Lanka to ensure that the international community continues to monitor the country’s progress and to once again offer assistance on “outstanding reconciliation and accountability issues”.
She stated finally that the United States hopes that this resolution will be a cooperative effort with the Sri Lankan government.
February 26, 2013 04:39 pm
