UN Human Rights Meetings Begins Today

By Dianne Silva

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) begins its 16th session in Geneva today. Representing Sri Lanka will be Plantations and Human Rights Minister Mahinda Samarasinghe, Attorney General Mohan Pieris and Secretary of the Ministry of External Affairs Romesh Jayasinghe.

Meanwhile Minister Samarasinghe had met UN Human Rights Council Chief Navaneethan Pillai on Friday accompanied by Head of Mission in Geneva Kshenuka Seneviratne.

It is anticipated that at the meetings of the Council the report by the Expert Panel appointed by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to look into accountability issues in Sri Lanka would be studied.

The Minister, who left for Geneva on Thursday, planned to meet the representatives of all member states of the HRC ahead of the sessions in order to elucidate to them the present post-conflict situation in the country, according to the Ministers Media Personnel.

The council will be in session till March 25. Officials of the Attorney General’s Department and the Army’s Legal Division are also part of the Lankan delegation.

Source: The Daily Mirror – 28.02.2011