Sri Lankan delegation to attend the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council

COLOMBO (News 1^st) - A high-level Sri Lankan delegation is scheduled to depart for Geneva tomorrow (March 19) in order to attend the 37th session of the UN Human Rights Council. According to the Government information department, the delegation will highlight actions Sri Lanka has taken since it co-sponsored UNHRC Resolution 30/1 in September 2015. These actions include the operationalization of the Office of Missing Persons, the enactment of the Enforced Disappearances Act, ongoing discussions on the draft counter-terrorism legislation to replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act and a bill to set up the Reparations Office recently approved by Cabinet. Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana will lead the delegation with Special Assignments Minister Sarath Amunugama accompanying the delegation as the President’s Representative. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sri Lanka’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Report under the third cycle of the UPR will be adopted tomorrow (March 19). Meanwhile The 'Ceylon Today' reports that top international human rights lawyer and Barrister, Sir Geoffrey Nice QC, who led the prosecution in the trial of former Yugoslavia President Slobodan Milosevic at the international tribunal in the Hague, has been hired as the legal adviser by the Global Sri Lanka Forum (GSLF), to lodge a formal complaint against the United Nations Human Right Council, for adopting Resolution 30/1 co-sponsored by Sri Lanka in 2015, without a vote. The article notes that the faction that supports former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, invited three members to be in the advisory council. One was QC Geoffrey Nice and the others were Sir Desmond de Silva QC and Prof. David Crane. These international reputed prosecutors were hired for colossal payment during Rajapaksa’s regime by the Ministry of External Affairs. https://www.facebook.com/NewsfirstSL/videos/1880358728691043/