Pillay may submit Lanka report

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay may submit a report on her Sri Lanka visit to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva when it meets in September.

Pillay will address the Council on its opening day when it meets for its 24th session from 9 to 27 September. A spokesman at her office confirmed that she will be in the country from Sunday August 25 and end with a press conference on the morning of Saturday August 31. Asked about reports that the visit may take place earlier, the spokesman said that so far there is no change in the dates but he could not rule that out. The Chief Security Advisor to Pillay’s office was in Sri Lanka last week ahead of the scheduled visit by Pillay to the country. Abraham Mathai manages security operations of the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) worldwide and as a member of the senior management team he participates in organising policy issues. Pillay had told the BBC Tamil service last month that she will look at the post-war developments in Sri Lanka during her visit and meet all the concerned parties. Sri Lanka considers the visit as part of its “continued, transparent and proactive engagement” with the High Commissioner and her office. “We believe that the visit would enable the High Commissioner to experience at first hand the significant strides made and also efforts presently underway in the reconciliation process in Sri Lanka, in the relatively brief period of 4 years since the end of the ruthless terrorist conflict that decimated our nation and its peoples for 30 long years,” the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva Ravinatha P. Aryasinha had said in May.