Pillay back in business in the city

Friday, 30 August 2013 03:19 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

President’s Secy, Ministers brief Pillay on Government’s HR progress
Meetings with President, Gota today
TNA, UNP meets also in today’s packed schedule
Will attend Youth Parliament session and event to mark International Day of the Disappeared

By Dharisha Bastians UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay, who resumed meetings in the capital yesterday following tours to the north and east, was briefed on the Government’s implementation of the LLRC recommendations and measures taken to investigate alleged rights abuses during the war. High Commissioner Pillay met with External Affairs Minister G.L. Peiris at the Ministry of External Affairs last morning, followed by meetings with Presidential Secretary Lalith Weeratunga and Presidential Special Envoy on Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe. “The morning’s meeting with Ms. Pillay was cordial and we were able to present to her the substantial progress made on the LLRC recommendations,” Weeratunga, the country’s top civil servant, tweeted last evening. Weeratunga also heads the Task Force overseeing the implementation of the LLRC proposals for reconciliation and addressing the grievances of victims of the conflict. “We were able to counter some of the misinformation,” Weeratunga said about his meeting with the UN Envoy.

Minister Samarasinghe, briefing the media following his pre-noon meeting with High Commissioner Pillay, said Sri Lanka had pledged to implement recommendations it had accepted by UNHRC member states during the country’s Universal Periodic Review last November. “We will not wait till the next UPR in 2017, but we will take steps to ensure more progress on human rights issues,” the Minister said expressing hope that the UN Envoy would present a balanced report to the UNHRC in September following her visit to Sri Lanka where she was able to see the progress the country had made. Sri Lanka rejected 98 recommendations made during its UPR in 2012 and accepted 11. During the last UPR on Sri Lanka last year, the Government rejected 100 recommendations and accepted 110 recommendations, many of them made by the UN. High Commissioner Pillay, who spent the rest of the day in briefings with UN staff in Colombo, will participate in a special program and meet families of the disappeared during an event to mark the International Day of the Disappeared today, at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute. She will also address the Sri Lanka Youth Parliament in Maharagama today. Her meetings with President Mahinda Rajapaksa and Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa have also been scheduled for today. Pillay will also meet with the Tamil National Alliance delegation and the United National Party in the morning and afternoon respectively.