International Affairs

Addressing the High-Level Segment of the 46th Session of the UNHRC virtually yesterday (23), Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunewardena said the Government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had co-sponsored resolution 30/1 which was “against” Sri Lanka and made commitments that were undeliverable and not in conformity with the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan will arrive today (23) on a two-day State visit, the first by a world leader after President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa assumed office last year. Premier Khan, in his maiden official visit this year outside the country, will be accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood, Secretary of Foreign Affairs Sohail Mehmood, senior officials of the Pakistan Government, as well as a high-powered business and investment delegation.

The legacy and closure of Sri Lanka’s brutal civil war and the country’s complicated human rights record will take centre-stage as the 46th Session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) kicks off in Geneva today.

A scheduled meeting between visiting Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and two Muslim MPs, namely MPs Rauff Hakeem and Rishad Bathiudeen, has been cancelled on “security grounds.”

The United States surpassed half a million COVID-19 deaths, more coronavirus-related deaths than anywhere else, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

GENEVA - COVID-19's impact on efforts to combat gross human rights violations will be a major focus of the 46th regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

The European Union and the World Health Organization teamed with the international advocacy organization Global Citizen on Tuesday to host a virtual panel discussion on global recovery of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan’s military said Monday that efforts aimed at moving forward a stalemated peace process in neighboring Afghanistan are “progressing in a very positive direction.”

Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across Myanmar again Sunday, a day after two people were killed when police and security forces used live and rubber bullets, tear gas, water cannon and slingshots against those protesting the military’s February 1 coup.

ශ්‍රී ලංකාව, ජිනීවා මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලය අද අමතනවා. ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ නියෝජිතයා ලෙස සමුළුව ඇමතීම සිදු කරන්නේ විදේශ අමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනයි. ඔහු අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ මෙවර මානව හිමිකම් සමුළුව ඇමතීම ද විශේෂත්වයක්. රජය විසින් අමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධනගේ ප්‍රධානත්වයෙන් යුතුව නම් කරන ලද කමිටුව ද අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ සමුළුවට සහභාගිවීමට නියමිතයි.

මෙවර එක්සත් ජාතීන්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේ 46 වැනි සැසිවාරය අන්තර්ජාලය ඔස්සේ පැවැත්වුවද ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නියෝජනය කරමින් නියෝජිතයෙකු සැසිවාරයට යොමු කිරීමට ආණ්ඩුව තීරණය කර තිබෙනවා. නෙත් නිවුස් කළ විමසීමකදී ප්‍රතිචාර දැක්වූ විදේශ කටයුතු අමාත්‍ය දිනේෂ් ගුණවර්ධන පැවසුවේ ශ්‍රී ලංකාව නියෝජනය කරන ප්‍රධාන කණ්ඩායම කොළඹ සිට සැසිවාරය අමතන බවයි.

Sri Lanka and the United States have explored the modalities to encourage Sri Lankan exports to the US under the General System of Preferences (GSP) arrangement.

The UN’s Chief Human Rights Envoy Michelle Bachelet called on states to rebuild better after the coronavirus pandemic ravaged through the world, by applying human rights principles and building public trust through effective democratic institutions, a free press and participatory governance.

එක්සත් ජාතින්ගේ මානව හිමිකම් කවුන්සිලයේ 46 වන සැසිවාරය අද ආරම්භ වනවා. ඒ, ස්විට්ස්ර්ලන්තයේ ජිනීවාහිදීයි. මෙවර සැසිවාරය මාර්තු 23වනදා දක්වා පැවැත්වෙනවා. මෙවර කවුන්සිලයේ ප්‍රධාන සැසිවාරය හෙට සිට ලබන 24වනදා දක්වා පැවැත්වෙනවා. රටවල් 130කට වැඩි සංඛ්‍යාවක් නියෝජනය කරන නියෝජිතයින් මානව හිමිකම් ප්‍රවර්ධනය සහ ආරක්ෂා කිරීම වෙනුවෙන් එක් එක් රටවල් දරණ උත්සාහයන් හා ගෙන ඇති ක්‍රියාමර්ග එහිදී පැහැදිලි කිරීමට නියමිතයි.

Israelis who have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine saw their risk of illness from the coronavirus drop 98.5% and their risk of hospitalization drop 98.9%, the country’s Health Ministry said Saturday.

Chinese company Sinosoar-Etechwin Joint Venture, which won the project to build power projects in three northern islands, yesterday rejected allegations its involvement could create security concerns, insisting that the award was given after due process and the entire undertaking was with the supervision of the Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB).

Sri Lanka has decided to take up with the Japanese Government the inordinate delay in the completion of the expansion and modernisation of the Bandaranaike International Airport (BIA) by the Japanese company.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will arrive in Sri Lanka on Tuesday with a high-powered business and investment delegation and will participate in a business and investment forum, a statement from the Foreign Ministry said yesterday. Prime Minister Khan is scheduled to undertake an official visit to Sri Lanka on 23-24 February on the invitation of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.