‘No LLRC report before UNHRC’

Waruna Padmasiri

Sri Lanka will not be presenting the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) report to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) as it was never the intention of the government to do so, Plantation Industries Minister, Presidential Envoy on Human Rights and leader of the delegation to the UNHRC, Mahinda Samarasinghe told the Daily News.

Minister Samarasinghe said that he anticipates that there will be references to the LLRC report and if that happens, the delegation will be prepared to present the government’s view with respect to the report that was presented to Parliament in December 2011.

“We will respond to any questions raised in this regard,” he said. Answering a question, Minister Samarasinghe said that the Darusman report too cannot be presented to the Human Rights Council for a number of reasons.

“As it was not backed by an intergovernmental decision and came about as a result of the Secretary General exercising his executive prerogative, the government’s stance has been consistent that the report cannot come before the Human Rights Council,” he said. Samarasinghe said that a few delegations tried to bring the Darusman report to the Council last year unsuccessfully.

A clear decision was taken that the report was not a result of a decision taken by the UNHRC.

Sri Lanka comes under Universal Periodic Review at the UNHRC sessions in Geneva scheduled to begin at the end of February this year, the minister said.