Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said that he has extended an invitation to the new United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to visit Sri Lanka in 2014 to assess Sri Lanka's progress in national reconciliation and to assess the steps taken by Colombo to engage with UN agencies, in particular with the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).
According to the Lanka Page web site, President Rajapaksa informed visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of this development during their interaction over the weekend. The latter welcomed the continuing engagement of the Sri Lankan government with the Human Rights Council and its mechanisms.
He also appreciated the scheduling of a meeting in Geneva with the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) later this month and to seek visit by UNWGEID to Sri Lanka at a mutually appropriate time.
Prime Minister Abe, while recognizing the progress made so far in national reconciliation, reiterated the importance of dialogue among all stakeholders for national reconciliation and further efforts to promote the implementation of the National Plan of Action on the recommendations of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC).
He appreciated the specific actions taken by the Sri Lankan government such as holding the election of the Northern Provincial Council in September 2013, submitting to Parliament the Bill on Assistance to and Protection of Victims and Witnesses, finalizing the report of the Joint Needs Assessment on resettled IDPs, and expanding the mandate of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry on Missing Persons including the establishment of an Advisory Council comprising internationally recognized persons of eminence as domestic initiatives.
In order to assist the Sri Lankan Government's efforts to achieve national reconciliation, Japan has taken several measures such as the project for the training of officers in community development in conflict-affected areas and assistance for the trilingual policy, and welcomed recent progress such as the dispatch of experts for promoting agricultural production and marketing in less developed areas.
