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UNP condemns decision to sign China backed statement on UK’s Human Rights situ

15 Jul 2021

The United National Party (UNP) condemned the Government's decision to sign a statement which raised concerns on the United Kingdom's (UK) Human Rights record, according to a statement released by the Party’s Central Media Unit today (15). It was mentioned that such actions by the Government will only serve to jeopardise national vaccination efforts. “The U.K. has pledged their excess Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines to countries around the world who are facing shortages. Sri Lanka is desperately in need of these vaccines as 600,000 citizens are awaiting their second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine,” the UNP said. Further, the UNP requests the UK Government to not withhold the supply of these urgently required vaccine doses due to the comments of a few individuals. This comes after Sri Lanka appeared on the list of signatories of a joint statement sponsored by China which raised concerns on the human rights situation in the United Kingdom (UK). This joint statement which was delivered during the 47th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva was also signed by Belarus, Bolivia, North Korea (DPRK), Iran, Russia, Syria and Venezuela. Accordingly, China expressed concerns on the human rights situation in the UK, alleging that severe systemic racism, racial discrimination, hate speech, xenophobia and related violence have long been existing in the UK, adding that such discriminatory actions are toxic residues of colonialism and trade in enslaved Africans in UK’s history.


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