Pillay attacks S Lanka rights record

31 August 2013 Last updated at 09:28 ET

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UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay: "A more holistic approach is needed"

UN Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay has sharply criticised the government of Sri Lanka, at the end of a week-long visit.

In a statement, Ms Pillay said she feared the country was becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Since the civil war ended four years ago, democracy had been undermined and the rule of law eroded, she added.

Ms Pillay is the most senior UN official to visit the north since Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in 2009.

She arrived in Sri Lanka last Sunday for a fact-finding mission after the government promised her access to former war zones.

She told reporters then that her job was to ensure that the government was conforming to human rights standards agreed by all nations.

The BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Geneva says the statement issued by Ms Pillay's office is astonishingly blunt, and parts of it will not go down well with the Sri Lankan government, which had not been especially keen on her visit in the first place.

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Pillay attacks S Lanka rights record