{"id":64052,"date":"2012-12-09T18:54:17","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T18:54:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=64052"},"modified":"2012-12-12T06:28:38","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T06:28:38","slug":"more-countries-are-now-breathing-down-sri-lankas-neck-and-it-is-a-good-sign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/more-countries-are-now-breathing-down-sri-lankas-neck-and-it-is-a-good-sign\/","title":{"rendered":"More Countries Are Now Breathing Down Sri Lanka\u2019s Neck And It Is A Good Sign"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Paul Newman<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr Paul Newman<\/p><\/div>\n

The Universal Periodic Review<\/a><\/span> (UPR) is a process in the United Nations Human Rights Council<\/a><\/span> in which member countries need to review their human rights records periodically once in four years. The review would be conducted by a Troika of 3 countries. The first submission of Sri Lanka was made in 2008 subsequently after four years Sri Lanka\u2019s turn came for reviewing its glorious human rights record came this November 2012. India, Benin and Spain reviewed the performance of Sri Lanka over the past four years.<\/p>\n

The leakage of the Charles Petrie<\/a><\/span> report commissioned by the UN to review the failure of the UN in protecting the civilians took the centre stage and overshadowed the coverage of the UPR. During its first review in 2008 Sri Lanka in all got 95 recommendations from 39 countries. In all it accepted 52 recommendations to be implemented over a period of 4 years and rejected 25 with no clear position on 8.<\/p>\n

The very next year Sri Lanka set out on a path to destroy the Tamils ending its successful campaign ending \u00a0with the Mullivaikal<\/a><\/span> carnage of innocent Tamil civilians in May 2009. The then mute International community has woken up to see the cruel treatment of the Tamils in the \u2018war without witness\u2019 with a series of expose\u2019 in the International media. It is reflected in the participation of 99 countries in the UPR of Sri Lanka. 29 NGOs and INGOs made their submissions along with 17 joint submissions by individuals.<\/p>\n

An overwhelming 210 concrete recommendations were made by these 99 countries. Sri Lanka accepted 110 of those recommendations and rejected an overwhelming 100 recommendations, nearly half the recommendations made. This is the highest rejection by a member state in the history of UPR. In all Sri Lanka rejected the recommendations of 45 countries. Some of the most concrete suggestions which would have gone a long way in Sri Lanka mending fences with the Tamils, Muslims and the International community that were rejected are :<\/p>\n