Sri Lanka speaks out on Mercenaries
and Freedom of Opinion & Expression at the HRC
The Permanent Mission of
Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva
28th March 2008
H.E. Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka Ambassador and Permanent
Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations
Statement by H.E. Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka Ambassador and Permanent
Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at the Seventh Session
of the Human Rights Council prior to the adoption of the Resolution
titled "Mandate of the working group on the use of mercenaries
as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the
right of peoples to self-determination", A/HRC/7/L.7/Rev.1.
Mr. President,
Sri Lanka shall vote in favour of the resolution for two reasons. Firstly,
those of us in the global South have had in our lifetime a very traumatic
experience of the use of mercenaries emanating particularly from an
alliance between corporate business and certain metropolitan centres.
We remember the murder of Patrice Lumumba and the use of mercenaries
on the continent of Africa in the 1960s.
The second reason that we shall vote in favour of the text is the resurgence
of the phenomenon of mercenaries under the sanitized term `contractors',
again, in use in contemporary conflicts in our part of the world, the
global South. For these two reasons Mr. President, we are firmly in
favour of this initiative. Thank you.
Statement by H.E. Ambassador Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka Ambassador and Permanent
Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations at the Seventh Session
of the Human Rights Council prior to the adoption of the Resolution
titled "Mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and
protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression" A/HRC/7/L.24
Thank you Mr. President.
Sri Lanka shall support the amendment to draft resolution L.24 and
it does so not because it belongs to the Islamic or Arab world or indeed
to the African continent. Sri Lanka supports the amendment because it
believes that the amendment rounds off the mandate of the Special Rapporteur,
makes it fuller, enriches it and brings in the dimension of responsibility
and merges it with the dimension of rights.
We are all too well aware, Mr. President, that there have been occasions
in history when the notion of rights has been abused grossly. One calls
to mind the example of states' rights being used to defend segregation.
So it is necessary not to have a perfect balance but to recall responsibility
while we insist on the primacy of rights. Now I think that the amendment
actually does this. The distinguished speaker who preceded me mention
the spirit of flexibility which characterized their original initiative.
But I must say in defence of those who have moved the amendment that
at least half a dozen synonyms for the term abuse of the right of freedom
of expression were proffered by those who moved the amendment but they
were all rejected, Mr. President. So flexibility has not been the monopoly
of one side in this debate, therefore, Mr. President, I urge that this
not been seen as a zero sum game. It not be allowed to be a matter for
polarization. If we regulate certain things minimally we may be able
to prevent them from being enacted violently on the streets of our towns
and cities. It is in this sprit, Mr. President, that Sri Lanka intends
to vote in favour of the amendment to draft resolution L.24.
Thank you, Mr. President.
Sri Lanka co-sponsored the resolution, Human rights and access to safe
drinking water and sanitation, which was tabled by Germany and Spain,
A/HRC/7/L.16.
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