Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, if he will make further representations for an international investigation into the ongoing issues faced by the Tamil community in Sri Lanka.

In March 2014, the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted resolution 25/1, which was led by the UK and other members of the Core Group on Sri Lanka. This resolution established the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) Investigation on Sri Lanka (OISL), which reported in 2015. Since then, the UK has continued to lead efforts at the UNHRC to advance post-conflict accountability, reconciliation and human rights in successive UNHRC resolutions.

The UK government remains concerned about the human rights situation in Sri Lanka, including the issues faced by the Tamil community. The Minister for South Asia, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon, set out our concerns in a statement at the UNHRC on 25 February. The UK, again alongside Core Group partner countries, has presented a new draft resolution at the UNHRC which aims to provide a framework for continued international engagement on human rights and post-conflict accountability in Sri Lanka. The draft text requests enhanced monitoring and reporting by OHCHR on the human rights situation and requests the UN to collect, preserve and analyse evidence which could be used in future accountability processes.