Sri Lanka to lodge protest against UN rights chief

By PTI | Zee News

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Sri Lanka will officially protest against UNHRC chief Navi Pillay, accusing her of violating her mandate over adoption of a resolution that censured Colombo on its rights record during the war against Tamil rebels.

The nation's protest against Pillay is to be based on the role she and her staff played in adopting the resolution against Sri Lanka in late March, according to a report in the 'Daily Mirror' here today.

The resolution had criticised Sri Lanka over its rights accountability front during the three-decade-long civil war and urged the country to work towards expeditious implementation of the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

Another part of the resolution requires the UN High Commissioner to submit a report on the measures taken by the government to address human rights issues, to its session scheduled for March next year.

In a related development, External Affairs Ministry sources had said Ambassador Tamara Kunanayagam, a Tamil, who spearheaded the unsuccessful Sri Lankan campaign to try and defeat the resolution has protested against an alleged move to transfer her to a posting elsewhere.

According to the paper, Kunanayagam in her letter to External Affairs GL Peiris had said if she were to be removed from Geneva, those who point to discrimination of the Tamil minority in Sri Lanka would feel vindicated.

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