Sri Lanka will oppose a new resolution on its human rights accountability, especially an external investigation mechanism, at the UN Human Rights Council session getting underway this week, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry said here on Monday.
Sabry told reporters that Sri Lanka was not agreeable to an external mechanism to investigate human rights abuses as it would be a violation of the country's Constitution.
Sabry, commenting upon the 51st sessions of the UN human rights council to be held from September 12 to October 7 in Geneva, said the Minister of Justice Wijeyedasa Rajapakshe would represent the government at the sessions.
“We will oppose the human rights commission investigation mechanism as it is against our Constitution," he told reporters. The UN high commissioner of human rights is on Wednesday expected to release her report on Sri Lanka, including the options for accountability under the HRC resolution number 46/1 of 2021.
Sabry said Sri Lanka was adopting a policy of engagement on rights accountability bilaterally and multilaterally and was looking for a lasting solution.
A possible draft resolution on Sri Lanka is expected to be presented on September 23. This would be followed by a vote among the member states on the new draft resolution on October 6.
The UN rights body since 2013 has adopted resolutions calling for rights accountability for war crimes blamed both on the government troops and the LTTE group that ran a violent campaign to create a separate state for the Tamil minority in the north and east regions.