Rajiva Wijesinha

“ Sri Lanka, in wishing the High Commissioner well for her future, takes this opportunity to thank her, her office, and the various special representatives who work in association with that office, for the advice and assistance they have provided to us over the last year. We also congratulate her on the elegance of the thematic summation in her speech of the various strands that go to make up the ideal to which we in this Council aspire. ”

“ Youthful enthusiasm combined with excessive prosperity sometimes turns a means to an end, and we hope therefore that the High Commissioner’s more rounded and circumspect approach will be better reflected in the future. ”

“ The Report has now finally been brought to the attention of your Head of Capacity Building and, though he would have benefited from seeing it before his visit to Sri Lanka, we are sure that he will work on it actively, and in particular ensure the strengthening of the Regional Centres for which we requested support many months ago.
We believe there is a greater role for your In-Country Senior Adviser on Human Rights to play with regard to facilitating assistance, and we are sorry that the last incumbent, who was very positive in her approach, was translated to higher things in Nepal. ”

“ We hope you will be able to ensure the appointment of an equally qualified replacement, who will work together with us actively to improve capacity and ensure the training of officials who must ultimately bear the burden of responsibility themselves. ”

“ When these happen, they indicate attitudes amongst other individuals that we hope will change. However the suggestion that the recent attacks against Roma settlements represents policy too was unfortunate, because that in some sense attributes responsibility to the Italian government and, as was suggested, such criticism seems misplaced and should not be made about a member state without clear evidence. ”