Commenting on the UN Human Rights Council’s decision to set up an investigation into human rights violations in Sri Lanka, US Secretary of State John Kerry has emphasised the importance of justice and accountability for a lasting peace on the island.

In a statement released after the vote, Kerry said,

“Today’s vote in the UN Human Rights Council sends a clear message: The time to pursue lasting peace and prosperity is now; justice and accountability cannot wait.”

The Secretary of State went on to address the current human rights situation on the island, adding,

“We are deeply concerned by recent actions against some of Sri Lanka’s citizens, including detentions and harassment of civil society activists. Further reprisals against these brave defenders of human rights and the dignity of all Sri Lankan citizens would elicit grave concern from the international community.”

See the full statement below.

Film maker Callum Macrae has called for a UN investigation, which was mandated by the Human Rights Council earlier today, to be “urgent, rigorous and robust”.

Mr. Macrae, the director of the documentary ‘No Fire Zone: the Killing Fields of Sri Lanka’, said in a statement released after the Council’s decision,

“For five years the Sri Lankan government has repeatedly denied that its forces engaged in terrible war crimes and crimes against humanity – whilst simultaneously claiming it was capable of investigating those crimes itself.”

Reiterating the TNA’s (Tamil National Alliance) welcoming of today’s UN Human Rights Council resolution mandating an investigation into Sri Lanka’s wartime atrocities, the party spokesperson, Suresh Premachandran expressed his deep disappointment at India’s support for abortive last minute efforts to first defang the resolution, and then to postpone the council’s voting on it.

Mr. Premachandran spoke to Tamil Guardian shortly after the Sri Lanka resolution had been adopted, after intense and heated deliberations in the HRC plenary, which he had sat through.

“We are hopeful this [UN investigative process] will eventually lead to the possibility of a dignified political settlement for the Tamil people,” he said.

“But one pathetic aspect [of today’s Council’s debate] I could see was Indian representatives supporting Pakistan in seeking to postpone the vote on the resolution, and to weaken it,” he said.

The Save Tamils Movement has welcomed the move to set up an international investigation on Sri Lanka, and strongly rebuked India for its “repeated betrayal” following a vote on the resolution at UN Human Rights Council earlier today.

Speaking to the Tamil Guardian from Tamil Nadu, Senthil from the Save Tamils Movement welcomed the international investigative mechanism, however also expressed criticism over certain portions of the resolution, including on the implementation of the 13th amendment.

Speaking on India’s role, he went on to state,

The campaign group Tamils Against Genocide (TAG) welcomed the passing earlier Thursday of the resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council as "a turning point for the battle for the human rights of the Tamil people."

Jan Jananayagam, TAG’s director, told Channel 4 news that the HRC resolution was a step towards justicefor those who lost loved ones during "the mass atrocities committed in the final phase of the civil war."

Welcoming the UN Human Rights Council resolution mandating an international inquiry into Sri Lanka’s mass atrocities as the first international recognition of Sri Lanka's unwillingness to investigate itself, Northern Province Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan said the international community had to go further and take urgent action to address the worsening situation in the island’s North-East.

“The decision by the UN Human Rights Council to pass this resolution is welcome, but it's not enough,” she told Tamil Guardian by telephone shortly after the Council voted.

"The people here are pleased that the world has finally acknowledged that Tamils will never get justice from Sri Lanka, the international community needs to step in. However, we cannot forget that the resolution doesn't do anything to help us immediately," she said. 

The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF) has expressed concern that the resolution passed at the UN Human Rights Council today has a limited mandate and does not address immediate issues, while appreciating those countries that co-sponsored and voted for the resolution.

In a statement signed by the Bishop of Mannar Rev Rayappu Joseph and Kumaravadivel Guruparan, a lecturer at the University of Jaffna, said,

Today’s resolution is a turning point in the battle for the human rights of the Tamil people. It opens up the possibility to obtain justice via international mechanisms for all those who lost their loved ones in the course of the mass atrocities of 2009 and in the seven years prior.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said today that it was the job of the United Nations and its bodies to seek accountability and victims are served justice.