Colombo prepares to trade off China-renegotiations for Quad scaling-down UNHRC Resolution in 2020

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 25 December 2019, 23:19 GMT]
Susil Premajayantha, the SL State Minister for International Relations, has gone on record on Tuesday stating that the new SL government of Gotabaya Rajapaksa was preparing to propose ‘amendments’ to the UNHRC Resolution 30/1 of 2015 during the March 2020 UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva. “We have fulfilled 17 out of 20 conditions in the resolution. Sri Lanka has a new government with a new mandate. Therefore, we have every right to prevent any untoward impact on our nation from any quarter,” the minister was quoted as saying by Daily Mirror on Wednesday. Three of the four Quad partners, Australia, Japan and India are going to be the geopolitical powers with active membership of the UN Human Rights Council in 2020.

China and the United Kingdom are among the outgoing 14 member states of the UNHRC as of 01 January 2020. Both the countries would have served two consecutive terms (a term is three years) in the Council as of 31 December 2019.

The SL Attorney General’s Department, SL Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the office of the SL Prime Minister were reviewing the UNHRC resolution 30/1, Mr Premajayantha has said according to the paper.

“[C]ertain conditions of the resolution were detrimental to the sovereignty, the independence and dignity of the country,” the Daily Mirror quoted Mr Premajayantha as saying.

“The alleged war crime charges and so-called hybrid courts contained in the 30/1 resolution have demoralized our armed forces.

“There is a school of thought that this loss of confidence among the intelligence arms of the armed forces led to the Easter Sunday massacre.”

The UN Human Rights Council comprises 47 elected Member States. The seats of the UNHRC are allocated to the five regional groups as follows: African States, 13 seats; Asia-Pacific States, 13 seats; Eastern European States, 6 seats; Latin American and Caribbean States, 8 seats; and Western European and other States, 7 seats.

The 47 member states during the 43rd session of the Human Rights Council (24 February - 20 March 2020) are going to be the following: Afghanistan, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Czechia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Eritrea, Fiji, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Libya, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mexico, Namibia, Nepal, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Senegal, Slovakia, Somalia, Spain, Sudan, Togo, Ukraine, Uruguay and Venezuela.

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