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Message: <blockquote data-quote="lkdood" data-source="post: 12365451" data-attributes="member: 92282"><img src="http://t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTf1LHN0aB-CZIyqKXhMCJkmZ_xAlZOxnlOgvzqPOZQFTjLAD9-7Q" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" />The High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay today warned that  there must be no reprisals against Sri Lankan human rights defenders in  the aftermath of yesterday’s adoption by the Human Rights Council of a  resolution on Sri Lanka. During this Human Rights Council session, there has been an  unprecedented and totally unacceptable level of threats, harassment and  intimidation directed at Sri Lankan activists who had travelled to  Geneva to engage in the debate, including by members of the 71-member  official Sri Lankan government delegation. Intimidation and harassment  of Sri Lankan civil society activists have also been reported in other  locations around Geneva, the office of the High Commissioner for Human  Rights said today. It also said that newspapers, news websites and TV and radio stations  in Sri Lanka have since January been running a continuous campaign of  vilification, including naming and in many cases picturing activists,  describing them as an “NGO gang” and repeatedly accusing them of  treason, mercenary activities and association with terrorism. Some of  these reports have contained barely veiled incitement and threats of  retaliation. At least two comments posted by readers of articles of this  type have called for burning down of the houses of the civil society  activists named in the articles, and at least one such comment called  openly for them to be killed. The High Commissioner has noted that some of the attacks on human  rights defenders were carried in Sri Lankan state media and Government  websites or were filed by journalists who had been officially accredited  to the Human Rights Council session by the Sri Lankan permanent  mission. She is calling on the Government to ensure the protection of  human rights defenders, to publicly disassociate itself from such  statements, and to clearly uphold the right of Sri Lankan citizens to  freely engage in international debate of this kind. The High Commissioner has also noted that Sri Lanka’s own Lessons  Learned and Reconciliation Commission, in its report published in  December, made extensive and positive references to the role civil  society can play in reconciliation and rehabilitation efforts, and  stressed this would require greater tolerance towards differing views  within Sri Lankan civil society and the protection of Sri Lankan human  rights defenders.SL</blockquote>

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