A/HRC/8/46
Page 17
Members of the CoI. I have no doubt that the CoI will continue to carry on its work with the same
zeal and dedication as it has been doing so far.’ Mr. Kodagoda said that the Commission of Inquiry
continues to function independently and is presently engaged in the conduct of public inquiries into
two high profile cases. Mr. Kodagoda stated that the proposed new law on Victim and Witness
Assistance and Protection has received constitutional clearance from the Supreme Court and is now
before Parliament. Once enacted it will put in place a legislative framework to provide assistance
and protection to not only victims of conventional crimes and witnesses of such incidents, but also
to victims of human rights violations and witnesses of such violations. The proposed law will also
establish a mechanism for compensation to victims of crime and facilitate the providing of
treatment, including medical treatment, rehabilitation and counselling.
81.
To conclude the interactive dialogue, the Human Rights Minister Hon. Mahinda
Samarasinghe said Sri Lanka would continue to work with the OHCHR Sri Lanka is a multi
cultural, multi lingual, multi ethnic and multi religious society. The Government of Sri Lanka will
continue its efforts to secure unity amongst all people of Sri Lanka and harness their contribution to
the national reconstruction and development efforts and to the final objective of achieving lasting
peace. The Minister thanked the President of the Working Group and the representatives of States
members and observers of the Council for their participation in the review, and for comments and
recommendations made.
II. CONCLUSIONS AND/OR RECOMMENDATIONS
82. The recommendations formulated during the interactive dialogue have been examined by
Sri Lanka and the following recommendations enjoy the support of Sri Lanka:
1.
Continue to enhance the capacity building of its national human rights
institutions with the support of the international community (China), including
OHCHR, and seek the effective contribution of OHCHR to strengthen the
NHRC (Cuba);
2.
Strengthen and ensure the independence of its human rights institutions such as
the National Human Rights Commission (Czech Republic, Ukraine), in
accordance with the Paris Principles (United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland, Germany, Ireland), including through implementation of the
17th Amendment at the earliest (Canada), and ensure its pluralist character
(Ireland);
3.
Encouraged Sri Lanka to further empower the various institutional and human
rights infrastructures, including by strengthening the structural and
operational independence of the NHRC (Republic of Korea);
4.
Cooperate actively with international mechanisms in order to implement
human rights at all levels of society and consider participating in core human
rights treaties, as well as special procedures of the Human Rights Council
(Ukraine);
5.
Try to respond in a timely manner to the questionnaires sent by the special
procedures (Turkey);
6.
Continue close dialogue with the United Nations human rights mechanisms, and
OHCHR (Republic of Korea);
Select target paragraph3
Connect to a paragraph
Connect to an entity
Disable highlights
Add to table of contents