As the United Nations Human Rights Council Thursday passed a U.S. sponsored resolution on Sri Lanka, rights groups demanded for a more accountable and international independent fact-finding mission to be sent to the Island nation.

Amnesty International said that the UN council failed to establish an international independent fact-finding mission to probe the issue.

However, the international Human Rights watch dog acknowledged the UN for highlighting the rights violation in the country.

Yolanda Foster, Amnesty International’s Sri Lanka campaigner tagged the UN resolution as a “positive development” but “regrettable” for failing to create an independent and international investigation team.

“It is clear that the Sri Lankan government is unwilling and unable to investigate these events itself, so an international probe is the only way to obtain the truth and justice necessary for genuine reconciliation,” Foster told Sunday Morning Herald in an email statement.

Thursday’s resolution was tabled with 25 out of 46 member countries voting in support of the movement urging the Lankan government to establish an internal but independent fact-finding delegation into the alleged rights violations in the country.

Philippines’s vote dismays rights groups

Rights groups have also criticized Philippines’s No vote on the resolution terming it a “Shame on the Aquino government.”

By voting No, human rights activist Carlos Conde said, the “Aquino government undermines efforts to improve human rights in the Philippines.”

John Sifton, HRW Asia advocacy director, has said “A no vote can be seen as an attempt to protect the Sri Lankan government from accountability for tens of thousands of deaths. This would be a slap in the face of human rights activists in Sri Lanka and elsewhere.”

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has earlier asked the Aquino government to support the resolution and to vote Yes or to at least abstain.

Agencies