Mangala to visit Geneva, meet Zeid
February 20, 2015 01:15 pm
Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaweera will travel to Geneva to attend the High-Level Segment of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to be held on March 2nd, 2015.
Over 65 Foreign Ministers from around the world are expected to participate in this year’s High-Level Segment.
“He is also scheduled to meet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Sri Lanka’s bid to postpone publication of a United Nations report into alleged war crimes won the backing of Zeid on Monday.
Sri Lanka’s new government had asked for a delay of several months to give it time to establish a new judicial mechanism to deal with the allegations of war crimes committed during the country’s civil war.
In a letter to the president of the U.N. Human Rights Council, which set up the investigation in March last year, Zeid recommended delaying publication from next month until the council’s 30th session, which is due to take place in September.
In his request to the Human Rights Council, Zeid appended a letter from Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera, which set out reforms that the new government planned to implement within 100 days, including ensuring justice for war crimes.
Samaraweera said he had invited Zeid to Sri Lanka.
