Sri Lanka Core Group statement for the Interactive Dialogue on the High Commissioner's Annual Report. Delivered by the UK's Human Rights Ambassador, Eleanor Sanders.
Thank you Mr President,
This statement is on behalf of the Sri Lanka Core Group comprising Canada, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and the United Kingdom.
High Commissioner,
We are grateful for your office's work on Sri Lanka.
We welcome the holding of local elections in Sri Lanka in May and note the more peaceful approach taken this year towards events commemorating the loss of life at the end of the armed conflict in 2009.
At the same time, we remain concerned by the Government's limited progress in fulfilling its commitments on human rights, accountability, reconciliation, good governance and constitutional reform.
We urge the Government to address longstanding impunity and to ensure that journalists, human rights defenders and civil society organisations can operate freely and safely. It is crucial that an inclusive and comprehensive reconciliation and accountability process has the confidence of affected communities.
We are concerned with the continued application of the Prevention of Terrorism Act, despite the Government's stated intention to abolish it.
Furthermore, we urge the Government to address the many unresolved cases of enforced disappearance by reinvigorating the Office on Missing Persons.
We reaffirm our willingness to work constructively with the Government on these issues. Thank you.
