Former Defence Secretary and Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa says that although he would work with the UN and human rights organisations in resolving contentious issues he could not recognize the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on Sri Lanka because it was ‘illegal.’
The 30/1 UN resolution titled, ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’ was co-sponsored by the present Sri Lankan government and adopted in 2015.
Addressing his maiden news briefing as a presidential hopeful at Shangri-La Hotel in Colombo, Gotabaya said that he will always work with the UN but would not recognize what it had signed with different governments.
The SLPP presidential hopeful was flanked by SLPP Leader, Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa and other party leaders.
“It was not a government of mine. My personal view is that it is not a legal document,” Gotabaya Rajapaksa has said when asked how he would follow up with commitments made through the UN resolution in 2015.
He further noted that as a party they had already rejected that resolution in public and that everyone knew that there was a stark difference between their policies and that of the incumbent government.
“We will work with UN and Human Rights organisations as well in solving issues but the resolution is not something we signed,” Gotabaya has said.
Mangala rejects Gota's claims!
After Mahinda’s defeat at the election on 08 January 2015, the new Government managed to reassert Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and regain Sri Lanka’s independent right to take charge of discharging the responsibilities of the Government towards its own citizens, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.
"As a result of taking charge of handling our own problems ourselves in consultation with all our own citizens, international action that would have followed as a result of the OHCHR Investigation on Sri Lanka that was established under the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime in March 2014 ceased. As a result of Sri Lanka taking charge of discharging its own responsibilities towards its own citizens, international efforts became focused thereafter on support for Sri Lanka’s efforts," Samaraweera said.
Contrary to Gota's narrative, there are no resolutions AGAINST Sri Lanka in the Human Rights Council anymore. The resolutions since 2015 are to work together with our partner nations in the world so that our citizens benefit from the best expertise in the world, and we work with all our citizens to set up processes that would help us put behind decades of distrust, violence and impunity and promote, protect and advance the human rights of all our citizens, the former foreign minister noted.
"I urge you to pause to think a little. If this resolution that Gota speaks of is against Sri Lanka – then there should be strictures on Sri Lanka through the resolution, or an investigation established as in March 2014 when Mahinda was President, or there should be sanctions. The resolutions from 2015, on the contrary, do no such thing. They have instead been the basis to secure economic benefits for all our citizens both in the short-term as well as in the long-term. They have been the basis for re-establishing and renewing trust and confidence of our own citizens. They have been the basis for establishing engagement with the international community to benefit our citizens, our administrators, our prosecutors, our forensic experts and our security forces with greater opportunities overall. They have been the basis for the doors of opportunity being open to us to develop Sri Lanka as a hub in the Indian Ocean and pursue a prosperous future for all," Samaraweera added.
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