Secretary General comments on reports of Special Rapporteurs - 3 June 2009

by Rajiva Wijesinha

Mr President, Sri Lanka thanks the Special Rapporteurs for their reports and their hard work throughout the year. At the same time we would urge them to work more consistently in terms of the mandates entrusted to them, and also to fulfil the requirements enjoined upon them by this Council. Whilst independence is important, it must always be exercised with a sense of responsibility.

We are sorry for instance that the Special Rapporteur on the Freedom of Expression has not paid more attention to the request that he look into abuses of the right to freedom of expression which involve racial or religious discrimination. Racism can express itself in many ways, Mr President, as was made clear here last month in the Conference on Racism, and it is important that racism masquerading under the guise of freedom of expression also be addressed as required.

Conversely we have found that some mandate holders have grossly exceeded their mandates, and engaged in statements that seem to fulfil some sort of political agenda. Whilst we are particularly interested in the work of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, and would welcome his assistance in improving our situation in this respect, we are wary of his raising other issues in his pronouncements that are not germane to the mandate with which we are, and should be, closely concerned. The continuing stress on factors which accord with other interests takes away however from the positive impact we hope concentrated work in the area entrusted to him will produce.

In general, Mr President, Sri Lanka has had to face in the course of this year what have seemed demarches in which a number of Special Rapporteurs get together to issue what seem politically motivated statements and peculiarly timed press releases. These have been issued without proper notice or consultation, and do not seem to serve the cause of Human Rights.

In this context, whilst we thank the Special Rapporteur on Health for his full expression in his report of our response to queries he raised, we are sorry that those responses found no place in the general demarche he issued along with several colleagues shortly after our interaction. It is such inappropriate interventions that are in congruence with other interests that seem to us to take away from the independence such Rapporteurs should uphold, in the interests of universal human rights rather than parochial considerations.