British minister Hugo Swire said that the United Kingdom has actively supported the improvement of human rights and accountability in Sri Lanka through multilateral organisations such as the United Nations, speaking in parliament last week.
Responding to a question from Gareth Thomas, a member of parliament for Harrow West on whether the treatment of Tamil detainees in Sri Lanka since the election of President Maithripala Sirisena had been discussed, Mr Swire said:
“We frequently engage with the government of Sri Lanka on human rights issues including on the treatment of detainees”.
The British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs went on to state that “we have raised human rights issues at all levels, as the Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron), did when he met President Sirisena in March”.
“I have also raised the issue with the government on a number of occasions, including during my visit to Sri Lanka in January,” he added.
Mr Swire concluded by saying:
"The UK has actively supported the improvement of human rights, accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka through multilateral organisations such as the UN, the Commonwealth and the EU as well as through bilateral funding of targeted programmes".