On 21 March the Annual Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights assessed progress made by the Sri Lankan government in the implementation of UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 and 34/1. We agree that progress has been made and welcome restoration of important democratic checks and balances, improvements in freedom of expression and assembly, the return of some military\u2013held civilian land, the establishment of an Office of Missing Persons and the ratification of the Convention on Enforced Disappearances.<\/p>
However, we want to see further and faster progress. In particular, we encourage the Government to establish the full range of transitional justice mechanisms envisaged in resolution 30/1, to deliver meaningful devolution through constitutional reform, replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act with human rights compliant legislation, and return all remaining military-held private land. We continue to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to deliver fully on the commitments it made in resolutions 30/1 and 34/1.<\/p>
On 21 March, the UK introduced a new Resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva rolling over these commitments, calling for the development of a comprehensive and time bound implementation strategy. I am pleased that this Resolution was adopted by consensus with 42 co-sponsors, including Sri Lanka.<\/p>"} , "answeringMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/1405", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Mark Field"} } , "answeringMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "Cities of London and Westminster"} , "answeringMemberPrinted" : {"_value" : "Mark Field"} , "dateOfAnswer" : {"_value" : "2019-05-20", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "isMinisterialCorrection" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "questionFirstAnswered" : [{"_value" : "2019-05-20T16:18:08.62Z", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} ]} , "answeringDeptId" : {"_value" : "16"} , "answeringDeptShortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} , "answeringDeptSortName" : {"_value" : "Foreign and Commonwealth Office"} , "date" : {"_value" : "2019-05-15", "_datatype" : "dateTime"} , "hansardHeading" : {"_value" : "Sri Lanka: Human Rights"} , "houseId" : {"_value" : "1"} , "legislature" : [{"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/terms/25259", "prefLabel" : {"_value" : "House of Commons"} } ], "questionText" : "To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of Sri Lanka\u2019s compliance with UN Resolution 30/1 on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka which that country co-sponsored with the UK at the UN Human Rights Council in 2015; and if he will make a statement.", "registeredInterest" : {"_value" : "false", "_datatype" : "boolean"} , "tablingMember" : {"_about" : "http://data.parliament.uk/members/163", "label" : {"_value" : "Biography information for Sir Stephen Timms"} } , "tablingMemberConstituency" : {"_value" : "East Ham"} , "tablingMemberPrinted" : [{"_value" : "Stephen Timms"} ], "uin" : "254719"} ], "itemsPerPage" : 10, "page" : 0, "startIndex" : 1, "totalResults" : 1, "type" : ["http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#ListEndpoint", "http://purl.org/linked-data/api/vocab#Page"]} }