Human rights vs. state sovereignty Explore This Story I attended
the United Nations Human Rights Council's special session on Sri
Lanka in Geneva last week in hopes of ensuring that the plight
of the 300,000 Tamil refugees confined in camps was not
forgotten. With aid organizations denied full access and
civilians not allowed to leave the camps, I thought the
international community would be compelled to make some gestures
to ensure a postwar Sri Lanka would be in line with
international human rights norms. I was wrong. The 47 members of
the Human Rights Council did not descend on Geneva to respond to
a humanitarian crisis. Instead, most came to defend their way of
life. While Canada stood with countries like Germany, Britain
and France deploring "the significant loss of human lives,"
urging Sri Lanka to give full and unhindered access to
humanitarian organizations and calling for an investigation of
human rights violations, Sri Lanka stood with countries like
China, Cuba, Russia and Iran, which resolutely de