The UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s Report has no binding authority over a sovereign nation, said Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Harsha De Silva and insisted that Sri Lanka could not accept all recommendations listed in the report.
The deputy minister who addressed a media briefing yesterday was referring to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein’s report on Sri Lanka, released on March 3, which called on the government to “embrace the report of the Consultation Task Force, to formulate a communications campaign to inform the public about details of the reconciliation agenda, to invite the UN Human Rights Office to establish a presence in Sri Lanka, to give the highest priority to the restitution of all private land that has been occupied by the military, and to adopt legislation establishing a hybrid court”. The last recommendation on the ‘hybrid court’ however caused the most controversy and Deputy Minister De Silva sought to quell rumours that even the Technical Roll over of Resolution 30/1, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka this year had such a recommendation, “The Resolution is the same as in 2015, we have included nothing new in it. This is just a Technical Roll over which we get two extra years before we have to report back to the UN. It has no mention of hybrid courts or foreign judges,” the Deputy Minister said.