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<p>The Sri Lankan government has taken a number of positive steps to improve the
human rights situation in that country, but we recognise that there remains much to
be done. In our statement to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in June we set out
the areas we felt were important for Sri Lanka to focus on. These included further
land returns in the north of the island, the repealing of the Prevention of Terrorism
Act, the devolution of political authority through constitutional reform and the creation
of credible justice mechanisms. I most recently raised Tamil issues with Sri Lanka's
Foreign Minister in September. We will continue to work with the UN, Sri Lanka and
our other international partners to ensure full implementation of UNHRC resolution
30/1, co-sponsored by the UK in October 2015, while recognising the scale of the challenge
this represents and allowing time for credible, well thought out transitional justice
mechanisms to be developed and implemented.</p>
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