Sri Lanka envoy to make a special announcement to the UNHRC today

Sri Lanka's Ministry of External Affairs says the President's special Human Rights Envoy Plantation Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe will make a special announcement today at the 22nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.
The Council will debate on Sri Lanka's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Friday morning and the state has been allocated 20 minutes to make its presentation. The Minister will describe to the Council the measures Sri Lankan government has taken to protect the human rights of its citizens after the end of the war in 2009 and how the government protected the rights of people during the terrorist war. The Minister is also due to apprise the member states of the Council on the initiatives taken by Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) . According to Sri Lankan officials, Minister Samarasinghe will also present Sri Lanka's official response to the United States -sponsored Resolution against Sri Lanka on Friday afternoon. The United States has scheduled an informal consultations session for this afternoon and it is expected to table the resolution against Sri Lanka following the meeting. The U.S. has entered the third version of the resolution A/HRC/22/L.1 titled 'Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka' into the agenda on Wednesday.

It has been expected for Sri Lanka to consider achieving some consensus with the U.S. on the resolution and India is reportedly nudging Sri Lanka to make room for a consensual resolution.

The resolution is expected to be adopted with a larger majority this time since the member states that supported Sri Lanka last year, mainly China, Russia and Cuba are no longer in the 47-member Council.

Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs Karunathilaka Amunugama however, has told the media that Sri Lanka expects India's support at the vote of this resolution.

However, the Permanent Representative to the UN Ravinatha Aryasinha has said that Sri Lanka would not negotiate with the U.S. on the resolution.-->