The Sri Lankan mission addressed a general debate on the Israel Palestine conflict at the 22nd United Nations Human Rights Council Session today, championing the idea of a people’s right to self determination and a sovereign state.

Commending the acceptance of Palestine as a non-member observer state at the UN, the Sri Lankan representative outlined in a short statement, that Sri Lanka supported the Palestinian people’s right to a sovereign state and condoned the occupation of land in Gaza and the West Bank.

See our tweets from Geneva below:

Around 1,000 people from  30 different unions affiliated to  the Film Employees’ Federation of South India (FEFSI) joined a protest on Tuesday, joining student protestors across Tamil Nadu.

Observing a token fast near Valluvar Kottam, the protestors called for economic sanctions against Sri Lanka, an independent investigation into genocide, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa produced before the International Criminal Court and a referendum for a separate state of Tamil Eelam.

FEFSI president and director Ameer stated,

Writing in the Asian Correspondent, Frances Harrison has stated hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Sri Lanka “rubber stamps the Rajapaksa regime” saying that the reputation of the Commonwealth was at stake.

Extracts from the former BBC journalist and author of “Still Counting the Dead” piece entitled “Commonwealth struggles for unity amid Sri Lanka HR concerns” have been reproduced below.

See the full piece here.

“Holding the Commonwealth’s main gathering in Colombo rubber stamps the Rajapaksa regime, endorsing its extreme Sinhala chauvinist agenda and whitewashing war crimes. As the host, Sri Lanka will  head the 54-nation body for two years and automatically sit on the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, which is tasked with taking action on thorny issues like democracy and rule of law.”

Continuing the widespread protests across Tamil Nadu, over 1,000 students gathered at Marina Beach, Chennai on Wednesday to protest against Sri Lanka.

Deepak Johnson, a student of Madras-IIT and one of the many present at the protest, said,

The all-party meeting has not been able to come to a common position on the resolution on Sri Lanka in the Indian parliament.

Of all the parties present only the Tamil parties DMK and AIADMK supported a resolution to be passed in parliament, with all other parties rejecting the idea, reported FirstPost.

The Sri Lankan Special Envoy for Human Rights, Mahinda Samarasinghe has slammed the report by the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay during a debate in the UN Human Rights Council on Wednesday.

“We wish to express our strongest reservations as to the content of the report on Sri Lanka as well as the procedure followed in formulating this document,” he said to the Council.

The Students’ Federation for Free Eelam has called on the Board of Control for Cricket in India to bar Sri Lankan players to attend Indian Premier League matches in Chennai.

Coordinator of the group, V. Prabhakaran, said that students would disrupt matches if they went ahead with Sri Lankan players.

Speaking at the 22nd session of the UN HRC, Tamil Nadu-based NGO Pasumai Thaayagam has welcomed the High Commissioner's report on Sri Lanka and underlined that an intnernational mechanism was the 'only mehcanism' in which true accountability could be brought to Sri Lanka.

Delivering her address, Dr Yaso Natkunam stated,

"The report underlined on-going and widespread allegations of extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances and torture, detention and land-grab, severe threats to the right to freedom of expression and assembly, lack of demilitarization, especially in the Tamil areas of the North and East, as well as the eight long-outstanding visit requests by Special Rapporteurs appointed by this Council. Real victims, the majority of whom are Tamils, are affected when violations of human rights such as these and many others occur and go unchecked in Sri Lanka."

She went on to say,

"Mr. President, the international community represented by this Council has an incredibly important role to play in ensuring the realisation of human rights for all. Pasumai Thaayagam echoes the High Commissioner’s sentiments contained in this report that an independent and credible international investigation is the only mechanism that has the possibility to ensure genuine accountability and reconciliation in Sri Lanka."

See her full address below

Gary Anandasangaree of Lawyer's Rights Watch Canada has slammed Sri Lanka's 'ruthless program' to disenfranchise the Tamil people and demographic campaign of Sinhalisation in the North-East, when addressing the 22nd Session of the UNHRC, earlier on Wednesday.

Speaking in Geneva, Anandasangaree said,

"The North and East of Sri Lanka are traditional Tamil territory with a unique language and culture. Sri Lanka has undertaken a campaign against the Tamil people to systematically mute their voice, and agency over a 65 year period. This campaign has progressively curtailed the democratic franchise of Tamils in the East. The same ruthless program is now undertaken in the North. Increased militarization, land grab, and the establishment of new Sinhalese settlements in traditional Tamil areas are exasperating the Sinhalization and Budhization of the North."

"This is no longer an armed conflict – but a demographic one – one that is based on artificially changing the population that would assimilate Tamils as one monolithic group within the island."