Sri Lanka Raised At UN Dialogue 

By Easwaran Rutnam-Sunday, September 15, 2013

The UN’s failure to make use of its resources and protect civilians in Sri Lanka during the war was mentioned during an informal dialogue at the UN General Assembly in New York last week.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon also attended the ‘Interactive Dialogue on Responsibility to Protect’ which was focused on the R2P concept.

The Ambassador of Switzerland to the UN in New York Paul Seger, in his comments at the discussion, said that Switzerland hopes the follow-up process to the Internal Review Panel-Report on UN action in Sri Lanka will result in a more targeted mobilization of the resources of the UN system in complex situations.

In the comments emailed to The Sunday Leader, the Ambassador’s office quoted him as saying that it is important to apply the concept of the responsibility to protect in a coherent and holistic way within the UN system. “In most cases, it is not necessary to create new tools – the prevention of atrocities needs to be better integrated into our day-to-day operations: the rule of law, security sector reform, the fight against impunity, transitional justice and mediation are all key components of prevention,” the Ambassador said.

Meanwhile, separately, the UN says it is still reviewing a report on UN actions during the war in Sri Lanka and the lessons it has learned from that. UN Associate Spokesman Farhan Haq said that follow-up action to the recommendations on Sri Lanka has continued. Asked at a UN press briefing if the UN report will be made public, Haq said that the UN will try to make some information public. “But ultimately, we will have to see what we can put out,” he said.

The report on UN actions during the war in Sri Lanka was compiled by a committee appointed by the UN following the end of the war in Sri Lanka. The UN had been accused of failing to intervene in Sri Lanka during the final stages of the war and prevent thousands of civilian deaths.