India abstains from voting on Resolution 46/L1

India abstains from voting on Resolution 46/L1

 Part of: GS Prelims and GS – II – International Relations 

In news

• India abstained from voting on a resolution in the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that makes a wide-ranging and damaging commentary on the human rights situation in Sri Lanka.

Key takeaways 

• Resolution 46/L1 has decided, among other things, to “strengthen” the Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights to collect evidence and develop possible strategies for future accountability processes for gross violations of human rights in Sri Lanka.
• It refers to “persistent” lack of accountability for rights abuses committed through the years by “all parties” in Sri Lanka. 
• Most seriously, it expresses a lack of confidence in the ability of the present government to address the shortcomings.
• Among the 14 countries that abstained were Japan, Indonesia, Bahrain and Nepal. 
• Among the 11 that voted against were China, Cuba, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, and Venezuela.

Do you know? 

• This is the 8th resolution on Sri Lanka at the Human Rights Council since the end of the war against the LTTE in 2009.
• India’s record of voting on these resolutions shows the ups and downs of New Delhi-Colombo relations, the pressures on coalitions in India, the influence of politics and parties in Tamil Nadu, and the ebb and flow of regional and international geopolitics.