Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry and Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe are to represent the government at the United Nations Human Rights Council session scheduled to start in September. It seems that they are planning to say that Sri Lanka protects democracy and human rights.

We cannot forget the history between Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Ali Sabry, who were both President’s Counsels. As soon as Gotabaya Rajapaksa came to power, Ali Sabry, who was an apprentice as well as his personal lawyer, was given the post of Minister of Justice instead of Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, who was more experienced. Because of this, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe even developed a resentment against the government to some extent. Now these two are going to Geneva together.

There, they are going to present facts about the National Security Act and new acts said to be brought against fraud and corruption, which are supposed replace the Prevention of Terrorism Act and the 22nd Amendment. A press conference is also to be held soon to inform the public about these preparations.

Governments led by Ranil Wickremasinghe are very good at making big promises to the international community without fulfilling them. Earlier in 2015, Ranil Wickremasinghe was also a co-sponsor of the resolution on Sri Lanka. That means that Sri Lanka was involved in the making of this resolution together with other countries such as the USA and England.

In this position he was able to make the Resolution on Sri Lanka less severe. Many of the promises made to the international community, from providing transitional justice to repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act, were not fulfilled. As soon as the Rajapaksa government, that was not as cunning as Ranil, came to power, he withdrew from the co-sponsorship of the Geneva resolutions. Accordingly, the situation changed for a new resolution to be presented at this time.

Nevertheless, the Human Rights Commission will bring attention to the government’s human rights violations such as detaining Wasantha Mudalige under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, attacking peaceful protesters and charging them with false accusations, arresting peaceful protesters for no reason as they were about to board the bus (Chinthaka Rajaksha), spreading false information that artists fled and are now hiding from the police (Jehan Appuhami), and abducting and detaining people (Veranga Pushpika). The team representing the government will have to answer to them.