Prof Wijesinha commends HRC

Sri Lanka wishes, Mr President, to express its appreciation of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, both as it has been conducted under your leadership this year, and in general.

It may not be perfect, and it could certainly be refined, but like democracy it is as good a system as we will get, Disaster Management and Human Rights Ministry Secretary, Prof. Rajiva Wijesinha said in the General Debate on the Universal Periodic Review.

It shares certain other characteristics with democracy as properly understood, President, for it seeks to empower all on the basis of equality. Too often do we find the debate on human rights hijacked by a few, with partisan agendas, and it is salutary that we, the member states of the United Nations, have here a mechanism that enables us to explore our strengths in all areas of human rights with a view to building on them, and to examine our weaknesses so that we can improve.

In our interventions this week we made clear areas in which success stories were to be appreciated, and we hope these will be generally understood and replicated as possible.