Mar 02, Colombo: The governing coalition of the German Bundestag (German Parliament) has defeated a motion brought against Sri Lanka by the opposition Social Democratic party (SPD) group at its 225th Meeting on Thursday, February 28.

The motion titled "UN Human Rights of Sri Lanka and use the rule of law, Observance of human rights and call for reconciliation" was introduced by the chairman of SPD Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The motion called on the German Federal government, inter alia, to condemn the impeachment of former Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, pressure Sri Lanka to implement the recommendations of Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission, demand good governance, transparency and fighting corruption for German and European development cooperation and ratify additional protocol to the UN Convention against Torture and Rome Statute.

The ruling Christian Democratic Party (CDU) Parliamentarian Jürgen Klimke, who has visited Sri Lanka earlier, has argued that there was no need for the motion as the Federal Government is already collaborating with the international community and the Sri Lankan government to address issues related to it, the Sri Lankan Embassy in Berlin said.

The full text of the motion presented (in German)