The Sri Lankan government is ready to face a key vote at the UN Human Rights sessions this week, Foreign Minister Rohitha Bogollagama said Monday. The re-election vote to retain Sri Lanka’s seat in the 47-member United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is to be held on Wednesday in Geneva.
Bogollagama told reporters that during his visits to many foreign capitals recently he had done the necessary lobbying in order that Sri Lanka makes a successful bid in its attempt to regain the UNHRC seat.
The Sri Lankan government in recent times has come under fire from several Human Rights bodies for its “less than desirable record” while conducting the current military push against Tamil Tiger rebels. The government maintains that it was fighting the world’s most ruthless terror group but it has never been the government policy to condone incidents of rights abuses.
The government has repeatedly spurned calls by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour to set up a UN human rights monitoring office in Sri Lanka. International Human Rights groups such as the Amnesty International and the Human Rights Watch have said Sri Lanka’s recent rights record warrants no seat to the island in the UNHRC.
A mission led by Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe and senior officials recently undertook a visit to Geneva to carry out lobbying on behalf of the government.