UN chief calls for meaningful engagement of all Sri Lankans

The UN's human rights chief today said there should be an "inclusive and meaningful engagement" of all Sri Lankans when implementing the resolution on the country adopted by the UNHRC last year.
The Sri Lankan government's efforts to implement its commitments in resolutionwill require a comprehensive strategy on transitional justice that enables it to pursue different processes in a coordinated, integrated and appropriately sequenced manner, said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Raad Al Hussein.
"This will require the inclusive and meaningful engagement of all Sri Lankans. I will present an oral update later in the session," Zeid said while speaking during the opening of the 32nd session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva.

Sri Lankan foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera will make a presentation on the progress made in implementing the resolution.
The resolution called for an international investigation into war crimes blamed on both government forces and the LTTE during the last phase of the conflict that ended in May 2009.
The UN has estimated that 40,000 people died, many of them civilians, during the civil war that lasted nearly three decades.
It was under Rajapaksa's tenure that the Sri Lankan forces defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the separatist group that waged armed insurgency against the government.