US Absence from UNHCR makes passing resolutions against Sri Lanka , A problem

When the US was there and sponsoring resolutions, as it did between 2012 and 2014, they got sufficient votes. But since the US has opted out of the UNHRC, the onus of getting a resolution passed will be on less powerful countries.”
Colombo, September 20: The absence of the US in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is going to make it difficult for the Sri Lankan Tamil lobby to get a resolution against Sri Lanka passed in the March 2021 session of the Council when the current resolution expires.

Informed political sources said that geo-political realities in the absence of the US will militate against any resolution censuring Sri Lanka. When the US was there, and sponsoring resolutions as it did between 2012 an 2014, they got sufficient votes. But since the US has opted out of the UNHRC, the onus of getting a resolution passed will be on less powerful countries. These do not have the clout to get it passed,” a source said.The source, which did not want to be named, recalled that when the European Union wanted to sponsor a resolution in 2011, it realized that it did not have enough backers in the Council. So, it backed out. It was only when the US took up the case in 2012 that the Council could pass a resolution against Sri Lanka. Every time the US backed the resolution, it was passed. From 2015 onwards till the previous Lankan government fell in 2019, Sri Lanka co-sponsored the resolutions (against itself) and they were passed without a vote.

We realize that it will be futile to introduce a resolution if there is no guarantee that it will be passed. Therefore, we are discussing the matter with the Core Ggroup led by UK and Germany and plan to engage African, Asian and Latin American countries also,” said a leading Tamil politico……..