U.S. Mission to International
Organizations in Geneva

Agenda Item 3, Clustered Interactive Dialogue with

Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence, Pablo de Greiff, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

 As Delivered by Michele Roulbet

30^th Session of the UN Human Rights Council

September 15, 2015

Geneva, Switzerland

The United States welcomes this opportunity to speak with the Special Rapporteur on the Promotion of Truth, Justice, Reparation and Guarantees of Non-Recurrence.  We express deep appreciation for Mr. de Greiff’s observations from his visits to Sri Lanka and Burundi.  We also welcome the chance to engage the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.

We thank the Special Rapporteur for your comments on Sri Lanka, and agree that that it is in the government’s interest to establish justice processes that have the confidence of the international community and will be credible to all the affected communities in Sri Lanka.

We also thank you for drawing attention to the ongoing crisis in Burundi.  We concur that efforts to redress human rights violations must be made and the “cycle of impunity” must be broken if we are to see stability returned to Burundi.  We also urge the Working Group to express its deep concern and offer its support in drawing attention to the situation.

To the Working Group, we take note of the decision at the 106^th Session to conduct a new study on enforced disappearances in the context of migration.

Questions:

• To the Special Rapporteur: In Burundi, how can the international community work to ensure that members of civil society can exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms, such as freedom of expression and freedoms of association and peaceful assembly, in such a hostile environment, which has led nearly 200,000 Burundians to flee the country since the beginning of the election period?  How do you think a regionally mediated dialogue among the government and various opposition parties could address impunity for past and contemporary violations and abuses?  How can we best promote accountability for human rights violations amid the ongoing crisis in Burundi?  What can be done to prevent a return to the cycle of mass violence that has characterized many periods in Burundi’s past?

• To the Working Group: We look forward to reading the report on migrants.  What specific issues will the report focus on?