The Sri Lankan foreign ministry has confirmed that Sri Lanka’s ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council spoke with government approval, when delivering interventions at discussions regarding the resolution last week.
Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Ambassador Ravinatha Aryasinha said the resolution was “repetitive, judgemental and prescriptive” in comments made during an informal discussion last week and had called for many key sections of the text to be completely removed. Sri Lanka did not want any reference to international judges or lawyers being involved in an accountability process.
He had also said “certain terminology used such as 'verification' is new and intrusive language,” and added that the resolution “must also observe clear, cogent language that the people of Sri Lanka find respectful”.
Colombo Gazette reported Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry as saying “categorically that both the interventions by Ambassador Aryasinha, and the moving of amendments to the draft resolution in Geneva, had the approval of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs”.
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