Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said the island’s constitution does not allow foreign judges to participate in any accountability mechanisms, a key aspect of a 2015 resolution that Colombo co-sponsored.

Speaking to the press in the southern capital, Mr Samaraweera reportedly said the inclusion of foreign judges as mandated by a UN Human Rights Council resolution “were in fact just a recommendation made by the international community when drafting the resolution,” according to the Daily Mirror.

He was also quoted as saying, that “as a sovereign nation we are entitled to look at all options”.

A draft resolution calling on Sri Lanka to “implement fully” a previously co-sponsored UN resolution from 2015 has been tabled at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, granting the government an extended period of a further two years to do so if passed.

The new resolution, tabled by Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the United States of America, welcomed “steps taken by the Government of Sri Lanka” to implement the original agreed upon resolution which was passed in October 2015.

The Sri Lankan government once again reiterated its rejection to the participation of foreign judges in any accountability mechanism for human rights abuses on the island, dismissing a key aspect of a UN resolution.

Sri Lanka’s Deputy Minister of Power and Energy, Ajith Perera, told reporters at the weekly cabinet meeting that both President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe were staunchly against the involvement of international judges.

The Sri Lankan government must immediately address demilitarisation, disappeared persons, land return and political prisoners as the most pressing issues for Tamils and Muslims, the UN Special Rapporteur on minority issues told the Human Rights Council on Wednesday.

Presenting the report following her October 2016 visit to Sri Lanka, Special Rapporteur, Ms Rita Izsák, said “I acutely felt the mounting frustrations across the country about the pace of progress; a situation that seems even more critical today than it was when I undertook my visit.”

Countering a press statement released on Monday by the former president Mahinda Rajapaksa entitled 'Constitutional and legal reforms to destroy the nation', Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera argued that his government had managed to end the country's scrutiny on an international stage and bring "shift all action to a domestic front". 

See here for full statement. 

Extracts reproduced below: 

A continuous protest by the families of the disappeared held outside the Mullaitivu District Secretariat has now reached its 8th day.

Relatives of the missing and forcibly disappeared continue to protest in Kilinochchi today, with their demonstration now lasting twenty-five days.

As Tamils protest for the release of their lands in Keppapulavu, the Sri Lankan military have been engaged in building a new Buddhist vihara on their occupied land.

Protestors in Mullaitivu have been reporting for months that as they protest, the military personnel in their lands could be seen destroying homes and infrastructure.