Shame on the Human Rights Council

I want to believe in the Human Rights Council, and I hope its new members — including the US — will improve things. But the HRC’s “response” to the conflict in Sri Lanka is simply appalling. Here are a couple of paragraphs from the resolution the Council passed praising the Sri Lankan government, which reads like something out of The Onion:

Welcoming the conclusion of hostilities and the liberation by the Government of Sri Lanka of tens of thousands of its citizens that were kept by the LTTE against their will as hostages, as well as the efforts by the Government to ensure safety and security for all Sri Lankans and bringing permanent peace to the country;

Welcoming further the recent reassurance given by the President of Sri Lanka that he does not regard a military solution as a final solution, as well as his commitment to a political solution with implementation of the 13th Amendment to bring about lasting peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka,

[snip]

1. Commends the measures taken by the Government of Sri Lanka to address the urgent needs of the Internally Displaced Persons;

2. Welcomes the continued commitment of Sri Lanka to the promotion and protection of all human rights and encourages it to continue to uphold its human rights obligations and the norms of international human rights law;

[snip]

4. Welcomes the announcement of the proposal to safely resettle the bulk of the Internally Displaced Persons within six months, and encourages the Government of Sri Lanka to proceed in these endeavours with due respect to persons belonging to national, ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities;

5. Acknowledges the commitment of the Government of Sri Lanka to provide access as may be appropriate to international humanitarian agencies in order to ensure humanitarian assistance to the population affected by the past conflict, in particular IDPs, with a view to meeting their urgent needs and encourages the Sri Lankan authorities to further facilitate appropriate work;

Meanwhile, back in reality, actual investigation continues to reveal the true horrors of the Sri Lankan government’s actions, such as killing 1,000 Tamil civilians a day in the last few weeks of the conflict through indiscriminate shelling. And, of course, the government continues to limit access to the internment camps it has created to hold displaced Tamil civilians, which the ICRC recently — and unusually, for it — criticized.

But that’s okay. At least the President of Sri Lanka doesn’t regard military action as a “final solution.”