In a significant development, India for the first time abstained from voting on the U.S.-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka on alleged human rights violation which was passed by 23 votes in favour as against 12 in opposition and 12 abstentions at the UN’s Human Rights Council in Geneva.
Explaining India’s stand on the vote, Permanent Representative of India to the U.N. Offices in Geneva Dilip Sinha said this resolution at the UNHRC imposes an “intrusive approach” of international investigative mechanism which was counterproductive apart from being “inconsistent and impractical”.
This is for the first time since 2009, India has abstained from the voting on the resolution ‘Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka’.
All three times — 2009, 2012 and 2013 — India voted in favour of the resolutions.
He noted that unlike the resolutions in 2009, 2012 and 2013, this resolution asks the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to “investigate, assess and monitor” the human rights situation in Sri Lanka which was an “intrusive” approach that undermines national sovereignty.
“It has been India’s firm belief that adopting an intrusive approach that undermines national sovereignty and institutions is counterproductive. Any significant departure from the core principle of constructive international dialogue and cooperation has the potential to undermine efforts of Human Rights Council for promoting universal respect for the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms,” he said.
