Amnesty International urges UNHRC to strengthen its oversight of Sri Lanka

Amnesty International has urged the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), when it meets for the 51st session between September 12 and October 07, to strengthen the existing Sri Lanka accountability project of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), that was established to collect, consolidate, analyse and preserve information and evidence for future.

In a briefing paper, the rights organization also called on the UNHRC to set up an expert mechanism on Sri Lanka to monitor, report, provide recommendations on human rights concerns that are at the core of the current crisis.

Amnesty International said the document details how the international mechanisms it recommends have a critical role to play in addressing the human rights, economic and political crisis in Sri Lanka, which are strongly interlinked and deeply rooted in the culture of impunity that has plagued Sri Lanka for decades.

The rights organization called on UN member states to reflect the gravity of the situation on the ground and recognise the necessity for these mechanisms and take action to advance human rights protection and accountability in Sri Lanka