Sri Lanka came under criticism at the sixth session of the UN Human Rights Council, with Portugal, which holds the EU Presidency, calling for the dispatch of a UN human rights monitoring mission to the country. National institutions set up to monitor human rights are widely seen to have failed, and many have put this down to a lack of cooperation from both the government and its rival, the militant group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).

The EU statement echoes the recommendations of a September 2007 Human Rights Watch report which criticises the government for “serious back-sliding” with respect to human rights, and for showing itself “unable or unwilling to stem the tide of ongoing human rights violations by state forces”. The report implicates government forces in enforced disappearances, the forcible return of displaced persons to insecure areas, the restriction of press freedoms and extrajudicial killings.

The LTTE continues also to be linked to serious human rights violations, including the targeting of civilians, political assassinations and the recruitment of child soldiers. Sri Lanka’s representative on the Human Rights Council responded to the EU’s criticism by stating that “the government cared no less for the population than those who expressed the criticism” and that “the citizens of Sri Lanka had always been cared for”.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the Special Representative of the UN Secretary- General on Internally Displaced Persons are all due to visit Sri Lanka this year.

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