{"id":86694,"date":"2019-03-23T16:09:27","date_gmt":"2019-03-23T23:09:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=86694"},"modified":"2019-03-23T16:09:27","modified_gmt":"2019-03-23T23:09:27","slug":"foreign-minister-and-delegation-meet-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-and-director-general-un-office-in-geneva","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/03\/23\/foreign-minister-and-delegation-meet-un-high-commissioner-for-human-rights-and-director-general-un-office-in-geneva\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Minister and delegation meet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and Director General UN Office in Geneva"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nation<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Geneva<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Foreign Minister \nHon. Tilak Marapana and delegation \nmet with Madam Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights \nand the \nUnder- Secretary \nGeneral in charge of the UN Office in Geneva Mr. Michael Moller this week, on the side-lines of the 40th Session of the Human Rights \nCouncil in Geneva.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

High Commissioner Bachelet \non 20 \nMarch, having \nreceived the delegation warmly, appreciated the progress \nmade by Sri Lanka in some of the key human rights commitments arising from HRC \nresolution 30\/1, and reaffirmed her readiness and willingness to continue to \nwork with Sri Lanka closely in further strengthening implementation and \nachieving progress through technical assistance and support in areas where such \nassistance was required by Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \ndelegation comprising Hon. Dr. Sarath Amunugama, M.P., Hon. Dr. Suren Raghavan, \nGovernor of the Northern Province, and Mr. Ravinatha Aryasinha, Secretary to the \nMinistry of Foreign Affairs and the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva \nAmbassador A.L.A. Azeez had \na frank and candid discussion with the High Commissioner for Human Rights, \nduring which perspectives on different aspects of OHCHR\u2019s engagement with Sri \nLanka were shared by the delegation. Regarding certain \ninformation contained in the Office of the High Commissioner\u2019s Report such as \nthe mass graves\u201d in Mannar, the \nrelease of lands held by the military in the North and East and other matters, the Sri Lanka delegation emphasized the \nimportance in compiling these reports by engaging \nclosely with the relevant local institutions and independent bodies, \nincluding the National Human Rights Commission, in verifying facts on the \nground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the meeting with the  \nUN Under- Secretary \nGeneral on 21 March the Foreign Minister briefed \nMr. Moller on progress achieved by Sri Lanka in reconciliation, peacebuilding \nand development and emphasized the importance of continuing assistance by UN \nagencies in ongoing reconstruction, reintegration and sustainable development \nefforts. The Foreign Secretary and the Permanent Representative were associated \nwith the Minister. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Appreciating \nSri Lanka\u2019s leadership in some of the key areas of UN work, Mr. Moller indicated \nthat his office would facilitate contacts between Sri Lanka and other \ndevelopment partners based in Geneva to help explore joint projects to \ncomplement Sri Lanka\u2019s national efforts at advancing socio-economic development, \nnoting further that Sri \nLanka being a country with reasonably higher social indicators than many \ndeveloping states, it could better share best practices and lessons learnt in \nits national development efforts with the SDG Lab maintained by the United \nNations Office (UNOG) and benefit from the experiences of other countries as \nwell. Responding to Sri Lanka initiative on the National \nThripitake Week and the importance of Thripitake as a \nUNESCO heritage, Under-secretary \nGeneral Moller assured the delegation that the UN Office in Geneva would extend \nsupport for holding specific activities such as library talks on traditions and \ncultures highlighting their significance as common heritage.            \n <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On \n21 \nMarch, Heads and deputy heads of UN and other International \nOrganizations based in \nGeneva, Ambassadors to the Human Rights Council and \nother representatives \nhad an opportunity to meet Hon. Foreign Minister Tilak Marapana and other \nmembers of his delegation at a reception organized by the Permanent Mission of \nSri Lanka to the United Nations and other international organizations in Geneva \nat a venue provided courtesy the World Intellectual Property Organization. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nation Geneva Foreign Minister Hon. Tilak Marapana and delegation met with Madam Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Under- Secretary General in charge of the UN Office in Geneva Mr. Michael Moller this week, on the side-lines of the 40th Session of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86694\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}