Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will publish an assessment of progress made by the Sri Lankan authorities against the conditions set down in the UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1, prior to its replacement on 21 March 2019 with the new resolution A/HRC/40/L.1.

On 21 March, the UK introduced a new Resolution rolling over Sri Lanka's commitments on post-conflict reconciliation and accountability at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. I am pleased that this Resolution was adopted by consensus with 42 co-sponsors, including Sri Lanka.

We have no plans to publish an assessment of the progress made by the Sri Lankan authorities against the conditions set in Resolution 30/1. However the Annual Report of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 21 March assessed progress made by the Sri Lankan government in the implementation of UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 and 34/1, and recognised the steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka since 2015 to improve the human rights situation.

We commend the steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to address human rights concerns and to introduce a more democratic and accountable government. However we are disappointed that more progress has not been made. We continue to urge the Government of Sri Lanka to prioritise the steps required to deliver fully on the commitments it made in resolutions 30/1 and 34/1 and to develop a comprehensive and time bound implementation strategy.