OHCHR fails to provide OISL report in Tamil

[TamilNet, Tuesday, 27 October 2015, 17:40 GMT]
More than a month has passed since the report of the OHCHR Investigation on ‘Sri Lanka’ (OISL) was initially released on 16 September after it had been postponed for 6 months. The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which claims to be victim-centered in its approaches, is yet to issue the report in Tamil language to be understandable to the victims themselves, journalists in Jaffna told TamilNet on Tuesday. The OHCHR is yet to respond to questions from the journalists on the availability of the OISL report in Tamil.

“Perhaps the OHCHR doesn't want the majority of the victims to read its findings and recommendations,” a journalist commented a week after requesting the Jaffna Press Club to write an appeal to Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The editors of Tamil dailies being published in the island have also complained about the OISL report not being available in Tamil.

Last year, when the investigation was mandated by the UNHRC, the OHCHR was quick to publish the Terms of Reference and the Call for Submission in Tamil.

The report is also not available in Sinhala.