Minister of Disaster Management and Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe, welcomed reports of President Mahinda Rajapaksa addressing the 63rd Session of the United Nation’s General Assembly in New York on Wednesday. President Rajapaksa spoke in Tamil at the beginning of his address. He said President Rajapaksa’s gesture was indicative of his deep commitment to guaranteeing the recognition of the equality of status of Sinhala and Tamil. The President’s action - arguably the first time Tamil was used by a head of state in addressing the UN General Assembly - makes it clear that "we are a government committed to promoting and nurturing diversity," he added. It was a very strong signal to the people of the north and east that Tamil, an official language of Sri Lanka since 1987, is used and respected by the head of state and government, Minister Samarasinghe stated.

Samarasinghe underscored the need for focused attention on the implementation of Sri Lanka’s official language policy found on Chapter IV of the 1978 Consti tution on the Status of Protracted Internally Displaced Persons (due to conflict) in Sri Lanka within the framework for Durable Solutions. The National Consultation was co-organized by the Ministry of Disaster Management and Human Rights and UNHCR in Sri Lanka. The key note speaker and principal resource person at the Consultation was Prof. Walter Kaelin, Representative of the UN Secretary-General on the Human Rights of IDPs and Co-Director of the Brookings-Bern Project on Internally Displaced Persons. Minister Samarasinghe who presided over the Consultation’s concluding session (on Thursday 25), spoke of the government’s plan to devise a national plan of action on the question of resolving protracted displacement.