The Cabinet has approved the establishment of an Inter-Ministerial Standing Committee on Human Rights, intended to strengthen Sri Lanka’s national mechanism for monitoring and reporting on human rights.
The committee will provide a stable national framework bringing together relevant ministries, departments and institutions to coordinate follow-up action and reporting on human rights-related activities, Daily Mirror reported.
Cabinet approved a joint proposal submitted by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism and the Minister of Justice and National Integration.
The reporting obligations behind it
As a member of the United Nations, Sri Lanka is a state party to nine core human rights treaties and five optional protocols. Each carries periodic reporting requirements to its respective treaty body.
The country also participates in the Universal Periodic Review, the mechanism through which UN member states report on progress in promoting and protecting human rights and receive recommendations from other countries.
Sri Lanka underwent its fourth UPR cycle in 2023 and has been given the opportunity to submit a voluntary mid-term report on progress in implementing the recommendations it received.
Reporting across that range of instruments requires input from multiple ministries, and the standing committee is intended to replace ad hoc coordination with a permanent structure.
The decision comes as the government’s posture towards international human rights bodies is under scrutiny, with the Leader of the House telling Parliament the same day that the government would not confront the UN over a Special Rapporteur’s comments on the judiciary, while also saying it need not accept them.
Sri Lanka was separately reviewed by the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Geneva earlier this month.
