Pushing for consensus resolution

by Ranga Jayasuriya 2013-03-17 Sri Lanka is pressing for a consensus resolution in Geneva and has indicated it does not plan to call for a vote on the US-sponsored resolution on promoting reconciliation in Sri Lanka, diplomatic sources said. The latest government posture comes in the wake of the Indian decision that had been communicated to member states of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva that it would support the US-sponsored resolution. "New Delhi has made it clear it would vote with the US, and Sri Lanka has made it clear it would not oppose the United States," a well-placed diplomatic source said, adding that like-minded countries of the Non-Aligned Movement are likely to abstain, even if Sri Lanka pushes for a vote on the resolution. "They would not go against India. Sri Lanka is in the sphere of influence of India and in case India voting with the US, countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America would abstain," the former diplomat added. On Friday, Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, delivering his speech at the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) sounded a conciliatory note and said Sri Lanka has accepted 113 recommendations out of 204 recommendations made during the second cycle of the UPR in November, last year. However, US Ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, in her statement delivered at the adaptation of the UPR report on Sri Lanka noted: "We are disappointed that the government rejected all UPR recommendations from States that called upon it to implement the LLRC recommendations." She also noted the Sri Lankan delegation 'attempted to reframe Sri Lanka's human rights commitments in terms of the government's National Plan of Action, which does not address the broad spectrum of recommendations put forward by the LLRC report, and by lobbying other delegations to revise their UPR recommendations to exclude reference to the LLRC report after they had been orally presented.'

2013-03-17