The US-based advocacy group PEARL has criticised the UN Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka.
In a statement, released on Monday, the organisation said the resolution was another “grave failure” of the UN on Sri Lanka.
“Given Sri Lanka’s structural impunity for past and present crimes, it is a mistake to grant Sri Lanka one more year of ‘time and space’ to investigate itself. This will only exacerbate Sri Lanka’s insidious efforts to Sinhalizeand militarize Tamil areas, causing irreversible damage to the Tamil community,” said spokesperson Anjali Manivannan.
“This HRC session presented an opportunity for meaningful international action on Sri Lanka, and this resolution wasted that opportunity. Last November’s Internal Review on UN Action in Sri Lanka described the UN’s ‘grave’ and ‘systemic’ failure in inadequately responding to rapidly escalating civilian casualties during early 2009. Unfortunately, what we have seen at the Council now is another grave failure of the United Nations on Sri Lanka.
“PEARL is deeply disappointed to see such a toothless resolution. Nearly four years after the peak of Sri Lanka’s genocide, Tamil victims and survivors deserve more.”
See here for full statement.