47 heads of missions requested to seek a resolution against Sri Lanka

Leaders of Tamil political parties and civic groups have written a letter to 47 heads of missions in the run up to the 46th UN Human Rights Council sessions set to begin next month. The leader of the Tamil National Alliance R. Sampanthan, Leader of Tamil Makkal Tesiya Kootaniwere MP C.V. Wigneswaran, Leader of the Tamil National People’s Front MP Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam and 8 others were signatories to the letter. The letter has urged UN member states to declare that Sri Lanka has failed in its obligations to investigate allegations of human rights violations in the country. They have requested that a resolution must acknowledge that there is no prospect for accountability in Sri Lanka by way of its own domestic mechanisms or through hybrid mechanisms. It also requested member states to put forward a new resolution urging other organs of the UN to take up the investigations while implementing effective international accountability mechanisms. The signatories have requested the Member States to mandate the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to continue to monitor Sri Lanka for ongoing violations and have an OHCHR field presence in country. They reiterated the need for concrete action with accountability for the above matter to be escalated to higher forums.