Panel report cannot be taken-up at UNHRC sessions -Min. Prof G.L. Peiris

Rasika SOMARATNE

The ‘Darusman’ panel report on Sri Lanka cannot be taken up for discussion at the UN Human Rights Council sessions, in keeping with UN procedural requirements, because it is not an official document at all, External Affairs Minister Prof. G.L.Peiris told the Daily News yesterday. “It is simply a document brought out by a panel that was appointed solely to advise the UN Secretary General” he said.

Minister Prof. G.L.Peiris

Prof Peiris said that if such an informal document is taken up by the Human Rights Council for discussion, that would constitute a procedure that would affect other countries as well in future.

The minister made this point emphatically in a presentation he made last Friday to some delegations attending UNHRC sessions.

Explaining matters related to the latest developments on the report, Minister Peiris said both himself and Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe last Friday had a long and productive meeting with UN Human Rights Council President Laura Dupuy Lasserre of Uruguay, on the eve of the commencement of the Council’s 18th session in Geneva. On the same day, both ministers had met representatives of 29 member states attending the UN Human Rights Council at lunch, where Minister Peiris had made a presentation on Sri Lanka.

Subsequently during a question and answer session many had made their observations. “There the representative of the European Union said, he had been informed by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillai that a decision had been made by the UN Secretary General’s office in New York to send copies of the panel report to both the President of the Human Rights Council and UN Commissioner for Human Rights,” the minister said.

“At that stage the Human Rights Council President whom we had already met said, she knew nothing about the matter.

Both myself and Minister Samarasinghe protested strongly that this was unacceptable. That was because the country concerned which is Sri Lanka and President of the Human Rights Council had to learn all of this from a third party, that is EU, which had prior knowledge about the matter”, he added.

Minister Peiris noted that this had established the fact that Commissioner Pillai had discussed this matter privately with the EU delegate and added that this amounted to a lack of integrity, transparency and impartiality in the dealings of the Human Rights Commissioner. “Both myself and Minister Samarasinghe protested strongly stressing that this kind of behaviour was going to result in a serious impairment in the functioning of the vital organs of the UN system”, he said.

Prof Peiris said that on Monday night, the UN Secretary General’s office had sent copies of the panel report to three persons, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Human Rights Council President and the UNDP head.

According to the Minister, on the same night, at dinner, with delegations from 10 other countries, himself, Ministers Samarasinghe, Nimal Siripala de Silva and Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Sajin Vaas Gunewardene MP and Ambassador\Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva Tamara Kunanayakam had informed the delegates about the irregularities that had occurred and said that all were very concerned about transparency and the way the Human Rights Commission was functioning.

The minister stressed that he would be protesting at both Geneva and in New York because the Human Rights Commissioner must command the respect of the Human Rights community.