Comments by Juliette De Rivero, advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, on the UN Human Rights Council’s resolution on Sri Lanka on Thursday:
“The Human Rights Council's vote demonstrates broad international dissatisfaction with Sri Lanka's accountability efforts in the three years since the end of the war.
“Many countries have recognized that this resolution is an important first step toward serious action to investigate the many abuses by both sides during the conflict.
“In its failed efforts to block the council resolution, the Sri Lankan government saw fit to put its own citizens at risk through vicious personal attacks on rights advocates. It's a credit to Human Rights Council members that they saw through the government's scare tactics to avoid accountability.
“Human Rights Council members recognized that when it came to accountability, Sri Lanka has been all talk and no action.
“It's crucial that implementation of the resolution be closely monitored to ensure that the victims of Sri Lanka's long war finally achieve some measure of justice.”
