Statement of Sri Lanka under
item 14 (e) of the General Segment of ECOSOC
Permanent Mission of Sri
Lanka - Switzerland
25th July 2007
Sri Lankan delegation expressed its serious concern with regard to
the recent trend of equating and clustering of countries and putting
them in different baskets as a means of expressing the nature of different
humanitarian situations in the world on 25th July 2007 under the item
14 (e) of the General Segment of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC)
being held in Geneva.
Here is the full text of the Statement.
Statement of Sri Lanka under item
14 (e) of the General Segment of ECOSOC
25 July 2007, Geneva
Mr. President,
My delegation takes the floor in response to the statement made today
by the Assistant High Commissioner for Refugees under item 14 (e) of
the General Segment of this Council.
In her remarks, we see that Sri Lanka has been put in a basket of several
countries in connection with different humanitarian situations. Mr.
President, this is not the first time this happened in this Council
session. Earlier, during the Humanitarian Segment, the Under-Secretary-General
for Humanitarian Affairs and the Humanitarian Coordinator Mr. John Holms
placed Sri Lanka as the second in a group of four countries, who are
facing completely different humanitarian situations under different
circumstances.
In this regard, firstly, my delegation would like to express our serious
concern with regard to this recent trend of equating and clustering
of countries and putting them in different baskets as a means of expressing
the nature of different humanitarian situations in the world. Secondly,
such an approach will not be helpful in carrying-out Inter-Agency and
partnership approach that we have chosen in Sri Lanka and which is well-known
to UNHCR as a very important member of the two high level policy making
bodies namely, IDP Coordinating Committee and the Consultative Committee
on Humanitarian Assistance. Full awareness of local conditions is made
available at these policy-making fora and the prevailing ground situation
is amply discussed with all humanitarian partners, including the UNHCR.
The well-structured public service of Sri Lanka, which has been functioning
under difficult circumstance due to terrorist acts in the areas dominated
by the terrorists as well as in the areas cleared by the security forces
from these terrorists, play a vital role, and in fact, the primary role
in coordinating and providing humanitarian assistance. At ground level,
UNHCR officials do work with these well-established government institutions,
thus providing them the required awareness on the ground reality to
effectively carry-out their work. The humanitarian partners of the Government
of Sri Lanka include not only the UN and other humanitarian organisations,
but also NGOs, who have been provided with required access to carry-out
their work even under difficult circumstances. Of course, the legitimate
authorities cannot be unmindful of security dimension in the granting
and regulating such access, if only as transitional nature.
For the last one year, the High Commissioner for Refugees has met with
the President of Sri Lanka twice, first in Sri Lanka and then very recently
in Geneva and has discussed all aspects with regard to the humanitarian
situation in Sri Lanka and the provision of protection and assistance
to those affected by the conflict. Therefore, we would like to request
the UNHCR and other humanitarian partners to pay due respect and acknowledgement
to the above-mentioned well-established structures and practices of
Sri Lanka, which is a vibrant democracy and not a failing State. We
further request our humanitarian partners to do away with the practice
of equating our situation with other contexts, with which ours is nowhere
comparable.
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