The UN World Tourism Organisation has been criticised for organising a conference in an Eastern resort notorious for human rights violations and the displacement of locals.
The UNWTO conference entitled "Tourism: a Catalyst for Development, Peace and Reconciliation" held in Passikudah was dubbed a 'farce' by Sri Lanka Campaign.
The Society for Threatened Peoples recently detailed in a report that tourism development in war-affected parts of the East result in human rights violations.
“The local communities don’t benefit from tourism and they even suffer from its aftermath” Yves Bowie, Campaign Manager at STP said in a press release. "This is evident in Passikudah, where the UNWTO is holding their conference. The STP has shown in their report “Dark Clouds over the Sunshine Paradise” that tourism development in the war-torn area on the east coast results in human rights violations."
Human rights issues were ignored and whitewashed by conference organisers, rights organisations say.
"Astonishingly, no acknowledgement was made of these facts in the conference programme or materials. Indeed, accommodation booking forms for visitors – which offer stays at some of the worst offending hotels – seemed to suggest a total obliviousness, or wilful ignorance, by the organisers to such issues," Sri Lanka Campaign wrote on their blog.
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