Experts panel on Sri Lanka: NAM expresses deep concern to Ban Ki-Moon

The Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau Chair has written to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon conveying the Movement’s deep concern about the announced intention of the Secretary General to appoint a Panel of Experts to advice on accountability issues relating to Sri Lanka.

The NAM Coordination Bureau, in a letter dated March 9, said that the Secretary General’s proposal comes as a reaction to the proposals by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights that are based on information that does not take into account the particularities of the domestic situations, and without consultations with the Government concerned.

The NAM also pointed out to Ban Ki-Moon that President Mahinda Rajapaksa has already confirmed in public his intention to appoint a domestic mechanism to address accountability issues, voluntarily.

“Neither the Security Council, nor the General Assembly or its subsidiary, Human Rights Council, has made pronouncements on alleged human rights violations, nor mandated any particular course of action,” the NAM letter said.

The letter pointed out to Ban Ki Moon that the situation in Sri Lanka is not on the agenda of any of these bodies and there is nothing in the Charter of the United Nations that authorizes intervention in matters which are essentially in the domestic jurisdiction of any State without prejudice of course to the application of enforcement measures under Chapter VII.

The Non-Aligned Movement strongly condemned selective targeting of individual countries, which it deems contrary to the Founding Principles of the Movement and the United Nations Charter.