Forty three countries that spoke during the Interactive Dialogue (ID) at the 60th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva had expressed solidarity with Sri Lanka, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, said.
The Ministry said in a statement that Kuwait, on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, the Philippines, Japan, Lao PDR, Thailand, Vanuatu, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Eritrea, Iran, Nepal, India, Zimbabwe, Viet Nam, China, Azerbaijan, Indonesia, Türkiye, Belarus, Egypt, Venezuela, the Maldives, Cuba, South Sudan, the Sudan, the Russian Federation and Burundi, are among the countries that expressed solidarity with Sri Lanka.
The Ministry said they welcomed Sri Lanka’s continued engagement with the Human Right Council and the High Commissioner’s visit as a sign of the country’s enhanced cooperation with the Council and acknowledged the significant developments and tangible progress, including ongoing legislative reforms in the country, and encouraged the HRC and the international community to support Sri Lanka in its nationally-owned processes.
Those countries questioned the allocation of resources to the external mechanism on Sri Lanka when vital mandates in the Council risk being unfulfilled due to resource constraints and emphasised that externally imposed parallel processes risk polarisation.
They stated that the imposition of country specific mechanisms on targeted countries undermines the Human Rights Council’s founding principles of universality, impartiality, objectivity and non-selectivity and expressed concerns at the double standards, politicisation and instrumentalisation of human rights to interfere into the internal affairs of countries.
They underlined the importance of constructive dialogue and cooperation within the Council to reach productive results in the promotion of human rights, the statement added.
