Douglas Alexander – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Douglas Alexander on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what further steps his Department is taking to ensure that the international investigation into the human rights situation in Sri Lanka is carried out transparently, robustly and swiftly.

Mr William Hague

On 27 March, the UN Human Rights Council passed a renewed resolution on Sri Lanka which establishes an international investigation into allegations of violations of international law on both sides of Sri Lanka’s military conflict, and calls upon the Sri Lankan government to make progress on human rights and reconciliation.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will now begin the process of establishing an investigation and assessing the evidence. It is expected that the investigation will draw on expertise from a range of fields and examine a broad range of information and evidence. The High Commissioner will provide an oral update to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) this September, and will provide a comprehensive report to the UNHRC in March 2015.

The British Government fully supports the Human Rights Council and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. We will continue to work with them and international partners, and continue to encourage the Sri Lankan government to ensure proper implementation of the resolution.