Sri Lanka’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) which has 10,700 words has been sent to the UN Human Rights Council through the Sri Lankan Ambassador’s office in Geneva focusing primarily on the implementation of  recommendations made on the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and on the progress made on the recommendations made by the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).

The document has been  e-mailed to Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission in Geneva which will hand over the report to the UNHCR High Commissioner. The document is to be translated into many languages as the contents of it would play a major role in the discussions to be held in November according to President’s Special Envoy on Human Rights, Plantations Minister, Mahinda Samarasighe.

However, he said that he was not in a position to outline the context of the comprehensive document.

The deadline to send the report was yesterday (Monday) and the document was sent to the UN after President Mahinda Rajapaksa went through it and signed it.

Officials said that the document was e-mailed to Sri Lanka’s Permanent Mission in Geneva which will hand over the report to the UNHCR High Commissioner. “This document will be translated into many languages as the context of it would play a huge role in discussions to be held in November,” an official said.  

President Rajapaksa had assigned Samarasinghe to undertake initial work for Sri Lanka’s participation in the second cycle of the UPR which begins in October 2012.

Sri Lanka’s review will be held on 1 November.  The adoption of the report on Sri Lanka is scheduled for 5 November.

The UNHRC has appointed India, Benin and Spain to the troika that is scheduled to review Sri Lanka. All three countries voted in support of the UN resolution on Sri Lanka, sponsored by the United States and adopted by the UN Human Rights Council at the 19th sessions of the UNHRC in Geneva on March 22.

UPR is a unique process which involves a review of the human rights records of all 192 UN member states once every four years. The latest UPR for Sri Lanka was held in 2008. (IN)

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