United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC)Resolution Against Sri Lanka -Thursday March 21,2013

The US resolution against Sri Lanka over alleged human rights violations has been passed at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva where-

•  25 countries including India voted in favour of the resolution
•  13 countries voted against it and 
• 8 countries abstained from voting.

Indian Envoy Dilip Sinha,speaking at the UNHRC debate, urged Sri Lanka to undertake measures and ensure accountability. 
"We urge Sri Lanka to take up investigation that is credible and acceptable to the international community," Sinha said. "Political settlement should be acceptable to all including Tamils,"

Speaking at the UNHRC debate, the Sri Lankan envoy said the US resolution was 'clearly unacceptable'.
"The resolution casts aspersion on Sri Lanka's reconciliation process,"


The United Nations Human Rights Council(UNHRC) at its recent sessions held in Geneva, adopted a US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka, expressing dissatisfaction with the pace of reconciliation and accountability since the end of the war with the LTTE, urging the government to make haste in implementing the recommendations of its own Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission(LLRC) and also calling for other more credible measures to ensue accountability.

The basic problem with the resolution, from the Sri Lanka government’s point of view, is that the attempt to judge a nation’s intentions or sincerity in carrying out certain reforms, instead of what it has already done or is doing with regard to those same matters, is a violation of fundamental concepts in international law such as sovereignty and non-interference in the domestic affairs of a country, among others.  Ambassador Tamara Kunanayakam, Sri Lanka’s representative at the HRC, has said, “They are judging our intentions, not the ground reality…. It gives a role to the Council that was never intended.”  She has also said, “A resolution on Sri Lanka will, many feel, be the ultimate test of the Council’s politicization. It will make it or break it.”

There are four explanations generally given for why the Americans are acting as they are -

• first, that they are pursuing the R2P (“Responsibility to Protect”) agenda
• second, “domestic pressure” (i.e., pressure coming from the Tamil diaspora)
• third, what can be called the “they hate us” explanation (i.e. they are jealous of our success in defeating terrorism and certain other matters); and 

• fourth, “geopolitics.”