The apparel sector employs 350,000 Lankans directly, and 700,000 indirectly, 80% of whom are rural women. But withdrawal is a theoretical possibility. ![]() Sources close to the government said that they are confident that the EU will not withdraw GSP+ in view of the severe economic crisis in the island. It expressed concern over the continued existence of the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) and the continued detention of suspects without trial. In October 2022, the EU’s Sixth Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Rights, visited Sri Lanka. In June 2021, the EU parliament had adopted a resolution suggesting that the EU consider withdrawing the GSP+ facility citing “deep concern” over rights violations. The EU has been regularly complaining about the indifferent application of these protocols. And here is where Lanka has been wanting. And 60% of the island’s apparel exports to EU had benefitted from the EU’s GSP+ concessions, at 9.5% cost benefit.īut the concessions are linked to the ratification of 27 international protocols on labor, environment and human rights. Reuters reported in September 2021 that Sri Lanka exported 45%, (worth US$ 2.7 billion) of its garments to the EU in the first seven months of 2021. GSP+ gives Sri Lanka preferential access to the EU, the single biggest market for the island’s US$ 5 billion garment industry. Sri Lanka could not totally shun the UNHRC as the latter is dominated by the Western powers on whom Sri Lanka is heavily dependent economically. ![]() But it admitted the need to promote human rights and ethnic reconciliation as per international standards and kept the door open for cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR). ![]() Sri Lanka rejected the resolution on the grounds that these stipulations violated the country’s constitution. The resolution urged States to cooperate in accountability efforts, “including by using available avenues of extraterritorial and universal jurisdiction, to investigate and prosecute crimes under international law committed in Sri Lanka.” The latest (September 6) UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka urged the government to “re-launch a comprehensive and victim-centered strategy on transitional justice and accountability, with a time-bound plan to implement outstanding commitments, including taking steps in relation to the establishment of a credible truth-seeking mechanism and an ad hoc special court.” Victims should be given a role in determining the shape of the mechanisms, it added.
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