Sri Lanka must not be given Commonwealth chairmanship – HRW
Sri Lanka must not be awarded the two-year chairmanship of the Commonwealth after it hosts the CHOGM summit next month, a human rights group said today.
Commonwealth foreign ministers, will meet on October 17 and 18 in London to finalise the agenda for the summit in Colombo from November 15-17.
Rewarding Sri Lanka with the chairmanship casts serious doubts on the Commonwealth’s commitment to supporting human rights and democratic reform enshrined in the Commonwealth Harare Declaration of 1991, Human Rights Watch said in a statement.
The Commonwealth and its participants risk major embarrassment by holding the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) summit in Colombo, particularly given the September 25 statement by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay to the UN Human Rights Council, HRW said.
Pillay had highlighted a range of human rights problems in Sri Lanka, including the government’s failure to independently or credibly investigate the allegations of war crimes during the country’s armed conflict.
Her report to the Human Rights Council underscored the need for an independent and international investigation into abuses in the final months of Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war with LTTE rebels which ended in 2009.
Commonwealth countries should actively support an investigation and should press Sri Lanka to cooperate fully, Human Rights Watch said. – PTI
Latest Headlines in Sri Lanka
- Sri Lankan among NASA’s new crew for next simulated Mars journey April 18, 2024
- Court extends enjoining order blocking Sirisena from SLFP chairmanship until May 9 April 18, 2024
- Proposed Electricity sector reforms gazetted, to be tabled in Parliament April 18, 2024
- Sri Lanka register highest successful run chase in women’s ODI history April 18, 2024
- NPP promises justice for Easter Attack victims with special Judicial Commission April 18, 2024
Sri Lanka cannot be taken to task for concluding her war on terror – the suffering endured for nigh on 30years because of a rabid group called the LTTE. The critics of Sri Lanka on her war record surely know that thousands of civilians perished at the hands of blood thirsty and racist terrorists while others were inconvenienced and terrified beyond measure. Please ask the US what it does in Guantanamo Bay, how many civilians have been killed in Pakistan and Afghanistan due to drones, how many people died in Iraq and still do, etc. etc. if none of these are HR abuses, then please do press to investigate SL.