Sri Lanka trade deal with EU linked to human rights law

Sri Lanka has to improve its human rights record and implement its obligations under international agreements to extend trade concessions given by the European Union, officials said in Colombo.

Sri Lanka is a signatory to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) but is yet to complete the process that will see its full effectiveness.

"The state of ratification and the state of implementation across the board matters," Janez Premoze, an EU director for Asia and Oceania who headed a three member delegation, said at the end of a visit to the island.

The government has already referred the ICCPR to the island's Supreme Court for advice.

Sri Lanka's apparel export trade has been given preferential access to the EU under the GSP+ scheme which runs out at the end of this year.

"According to the rules of this scheme all countries wishing to continue benefiting from the GSP+ regime will have to re-apply by October 08," the EU delegation said in a statement.

"The legal provisions of the GSP+ scheme also spells out the linkage between trade preferences and human rights.

"The EU confirms that the entire process which has not yet started will be governed by objective criteria."

The EU backed calls by an Independent International Group of Eminent Persons and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to improve Sri Lanka's human rights record.

"We noted incremental progress," James Moran, director Asia and Oceania Euro Commission – External Relations said.

The delegation also repeated IIGEP concerns that a presidential commission of inquiry on human rights was below international standards.

The delegation said it had listed Tamil Tiger separatists as a terrorist organization in 2006 and acted against fund raising, and after seeing interim proposals from an all party body on devolution was looking for an "ambitious final proposal" in the coming months.

Source: LBO