As chair of the all-party parliamentary group for Tamils, earlier today I asked the Minister what steps the UK is taking to implement the UN high commissioner’s recommendations on applying sanctions and travel embargos and filing cases against alleged war crimes under universal jurisdiction.
I thanked the FCDO for its work in securing the new resolution on accountability in Sri Lanka at the recent UN Human Rights Council sessions. However, from speaking to Tamils in Carshalton and Wallington and across the UK, there is obviously still more to do.
I welcomed the comments from the Minister around the UK’s serious concerns about human rights in Sri Lanka, and was grateful to Lord Ahmad - Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth- for setting these out in a statement at the UN Human Rights Council on 25 February.
The UK has welcomed the adoption in March of a new UN Human Rights Council resolution on promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka. That UK-led resolution enhances the UN’s role in monitoring the situation and collecting evidence of human rights violations that can be used in future accountability processes.
I will continue to raise this at every opportunity on behalf of the Tamil community in Carshalton and Wallington, and across the wider UK.
