13 SIDE EVENTS PLANNED ON SRI LANKA DURING UNHRC 34; GOSL SIDE EVENT ON 1ST MARCH.

Image: Sri Lanka FM Samaraweera will address a side event on ‘Developments in Sri Lanka’ on 1st March.(c) s.deshapriya.

22/02/2017

There are 13 side events planned  during the 34 session of the Human Rights Council on the situation in Sri Lanka. The 34th session of the HRC will start on 27the February and end on 24th March.

Sri Lanka will be one of the case studies of the side event organised by the OHCHR on Transitional Justice.

There are three African organisations who have booked rooms for side events on Sri Lanka. Those are Tourner la Page and Association of World Citizens; or on three established “African” organisations focusing on Sri Lanka (or South Asia): Association Solidarite Internationale pour l’Afrique; International Association for Democracy in Africa and Society for Development and Community Empowerment.

Many Tamil diaspora groups want to establish that the HRC resolution 30/1 has failed and to demand that Sri Lanka be  referred to the International Criminal Court. They want UNHRC process on Sri Lanka to end  and UN General Assembly to take over and to refer Sri Lanka to ICC. A few INGOs too may likely to support that position although such a eventuality is highly unlikely.

The Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN and Other International Organizations in Geneva has now made a public invitation  to a  briefing on  ‘Developments in Sri Lanka’. This side event will be held on  Wednesday, 1 March 2017 form  1500 to 1600 hrs at the  Room XXI of  the Palais des Nations.

Leading civil society figures of the Consultation Task Force established by the Prime Minister will arrive in Geneva in the coming days to engage in human rights advocacy. Some of them accompanied the TNA spokesperson M.A. Sumanthiran to Geneva last week in order to lobby diplomatic missions re the Sri Lanka situation.

It is estimated that more than two dozen activists and politicians from Sri Lanka will attend the HRC 34 session.

The draft time table issued by the OHCHR: HRC34-1st draft NGO side events calendar