Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Three decades of civil war in Sri Lanka, which ended in 2009, caused the internal displacement of tens of thousands of Sri Lankans, many of whom are members of the Tamil population. This remains an issue to the present day. There has been a change in government in Sri Lanka following the presidential election in January 2015, and I welcome the stated commitments by the new President to re-establish democracy, freedom, good governance and respect for human rights.

Our ambassador to Sri Lanka, who is based in New Delhi, maintains regular contact with the Sri Lankan authorities and regularly visits the area for discussions there. Our embassy in New Delhi monitors developments in Sri Lanka on an ongoing basis. Through the embassy, we are in regular contact with the EU delegation in Colombo which reports that the new government has already taken some positive steps to deal with resettlement issues, including returning some military land used for commercial purposes, the nomination of a civilian governor in the northern province, cancelling the foreign travel restrictions in the north and welcoming Tamil refugees from India.

At the United Nations Human Rights Council session in March 2014, Ireland voted in favour of a resolution promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. One aspect of that resolution was a request for an investigation by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights into alleged serious violations and abuses of human rights, and related crimes by both parties in Sri Lanka. A report of that investigation is due to be presented at the UN Human Rights Council in September 2015. I and officials from my Department will closely monitor developments on this at the United Nations, and examine this report in detail on its publication.

At the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council of the European Union in Brussels on 9 February 2015, which I attended, the Council agreed a number of conclusions on European Union priorities at UN Human Rights Fora in 2015. With regard to Sri Lanka, the Council welcomed the commitments by the new government on rule of law and reconciliation, while encouraging the new government to work with the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Council to address ongoing human rights concerns and make credible domestic progress on reconciliation.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

A meeting of the EU-Sri Lanka joint commission took place in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on 2 April 2015. The joint commission, which oversees the EU-Sri Lanka Cooperation Agreement on Partnership and Development, which has been in place for 20 years, deals with a broad range of bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interest. At this meeting it was agreed in principle to establish a new working group on governance, rule of law and human rights, to allow for a dialogue on these issues.

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