Hilary Benn – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Hilary Benn on 2016-04-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the rate of progress of the implementation of commitments made by the government of Sri Lanka on human rights and the investigation of alleged war crimes.

Mr Philip Hammond

We welcome the progress Sri Lanka has made in implementing its commitments to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution it co-sponsored in October 2015. The Government has started public consultations on reconciliation mechanisms and on constitutional reform. We also welcome the Government’s cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as well as the progress it has made through the return of some military occupied land and the release on bail of some long-term Tamil detainees held under anti-terrorism legislation. We recognise that there is still much to be done and we remain committed to supporting and encouraging the Sri Lankan Government to fully deliver against its commitments. The Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire) reiterated this message when he visited Sri Lanka in January. We now look forward to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights’ assessment of progress at the next meeting of the UNHRC in June.