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Sri Lanka Priests and Religious to UN Body: Adopt International Mechanisms to Address Human Rights Crimes October 6th, 2015
One hundred seventy priests and Religious from North and East of Sri Lanka recently urged the United Nations Human Rights Council to adopt international mechanisms that address the gravity of crimes committed, especially committed in the last phase of war in Sri Lanka. Writing to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, priests and Religious said; “Since the end of the armed conflict many of the structural causes of the conflict remain intact.” The letter was endorsed and signed by several Missionary Oblates and other Catholic priests and religious.
o Read the letter here: Sri Lanka Priests and Religious to UN body.
Meanwhile Church and human rights activists in Sri Lanka have applauded a resolution the UN Human Rights Council (forty-seven member nation body) approved in Geneva on October 1, that would allow foreign judges and prosecutors to help Sri Lanka try people accused of serious crimes during and after the civil war. The U.N resolution calls for punishment of those responsible for war crimes. It also paves the way for accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka.
o Read more Church & Human Rights Activists applaud in UN Resolution on Sri Lanka.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Supports UN Resolution on Sri Lankan War Crimes Investigation March 19th, 2014
Catholic Nuns in northern Sri Lanka protest the arrest of human rights defender, Balendran Jeyakumari
Senator Robert Menendez, Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sent a letter earlier today addressed to Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The letter supports the US-sponsored Resolution before the UN HR Council in Geneva calling for an international investigation into crimes committed during the Sri Lankan civil war. In his letter, Chairman Menendez also said: “Over the past year, this committee has noted with concern the deteriorating environment for the democratic process and human rights in Sri Lanka. While this is particularly acute in the north, there are also disturbing reports of an increasingly authoritarian approach across the South and East.”
Read Chairman Menendez’s letter here…
