UNHRC ventures into ‘human rights economy’ View(s):Last Wednesday was a busy day at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva. Sri Lanka was not on the agenda but figured anyway, seemingly in passing and in a significant new framework. This time the UN Human Rights High Commissioner’s reference to Sri Lanka was not in the familiar tune of accountability, reconciliation and disappearances, but in a new framework of ‘human rights economy’. Decades before the ‘human rights economy’ was articulated in Geneva, Sri Lanka had placed human development at the core of its priorities, resulting in human development indicators not just on par with but even beyond more economically advanced countries. Geneva must place its ‘human rights economy’ within the framework of the right to development and related economic, social and cultural rights and not as yet another instrument for intrusive monitoring of the Global South.

Source: Sunday Times June 23, 2024 14:09 UTC