(UTV | GENEVA) – Concerns over the forced cremation of COVID-victims remains in the final draft of the resolution on Sri Lanka to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that has been submitted at the ongoing 46th regular session.
The resolution was sponsored by the Core Group of countries consisting of Canada, Germany, Malawi, Montenegro, North Macedonia, and the United Kingdom (UK) on “Promoting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka” to the UNHRC.
The draft “Expresses further concern that the response to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has had an impact on freedom of religion or belief and exacerbated the prevailing marginalisation of and discrimination against the Muslim community, and that cremations for those deceased from COVID-19 have prevented Muslims and members of other religions from practicing their own burial religious rites, and has disproportionately affected religious minorities and exacerbated distress and tensions.”
