In the wake of continuing violence and reports about deaths of civilians in Sri Lanka, the United Nations has asked Colombo to allow human rights monitors to visit the country and assess the situation.
"I have asked the Sri Lanka government to allow human rights monitors there. I have not got any response. I am going to press for that," Navanethem Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in India, during a visit to the island’s northern neighbour.
Pillay raised the Sri Lankan issues during her discussion with External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
"Our view is that you can never succeed through military solution. The problem can be solved politically," she said.
She said the UN wanted the Lankan government to ensure safety of civilians.
Pillay hailed India’s vibrant democratic and legal institutions, while calling on the world’s largest democracy to repeal “dated and colonial-era” laws and to speak out about human rights violations, particularly in its own region.
“I encourage India to speak out on its own, as well as in concert with others, whenever the human rights agenda that it cherishes and seeks to pursue domestically becomes of concern elsewhere,” the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said during her two-day visit to the South Asian nation.
In an address to the National Human Rights Commission in Delhi, she urged India “to continue to support freedom and rights wherever they are at stake, and particularly regarding the alarming situations in its own region, such as those in Sri Lanka and Myanmar.”
It was the first visit for Ms. Pillay, a national of South Africa whose ancestors hailed from India, to the country as UN human rights chief. She noted that both countries, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi, were able to “shed colonialism and the repressive rule of the few.”
Highlighting the gains made by India since its independence, she said that the strength of India’s democratic and legal institutions, as well as that of a highly engaged civil society and a free press, “rests on solid foundations.”
The High Commissioner’s visit to India followed a five-day mission to neighbouring Nepal.
