Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether the Government is working with other states on (a) a new Human Rights Council resolution on Sri Lanka that ensures continued monitoring by the Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights and (b) a mechanism to gather and preserve evidence of human rights violations in Sri Lanka at the forthcoming HRC in March 2021, in response to the Government of Sri Lanka's rejection of the existing consensus process on transitional justice, truth, and reconciliation under resolutions 30/1, 34/1 and 40/1.

The UK firmly believes that the UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1, and its successor resolutions 34/1 and 40/1, remain the best framework for establishing truth and achieving justice and lasting reconciliation following the conflict in Sri Lanka. We continue to encourage and support Sri Lanka to deliver on the commitments it made to the UNHRC through the resolutions. We believe that the preservation of progress to date, including the gathering of evidence, is important for future reconciliation and accountability. The Minister of State for South Asia and the Commonwealth and Minister responsible for Human Rights, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, has raised human rights concerns on several occasions with the Sri Lankan High Commissioner and Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, most recently on 4 and 5 November respectively. At the March 2021 session of the UNHRC we will continue to work with our international partners to take forward this longstanding priority for the UK.