The Un Human Rights Council catalysed progress in Sri Lanka the US said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the council’s 34th regular session in Geneva, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State of the United States, Erin Barclay said:

“When the council functions properly, it has the ability to remind states of their commitments and obligations. It can hold countries accountable for the same.”

“When the council works as it should its successes are victories for human rights.”

Sri Lanka's President Sirisena "made a commitment to the UN on behalf of his country and he must now deliver it", no matter the domestic political situation, British MP, James Berry said during a parliamentary debate.

Sri Lanka's 69-year-long experiment in nation-building is a failed one, the country's foreign affairs minister, Mangala Samaraweera, told the UN Human Rights Council today.

The report on Sri Lanka by UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues, Rita Izsák-Ndiaye called for the release of the remaining 6,124 acres of land currently under military occupation in the North as "matter of priority". 

The Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) denied the current head of department, former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, stated that the sexual exploitation of Tamil women by the army would jeopardise the reconciliation process. 

Displaced Tamils in Mannar held a demonstration on Monday to show their support for the people of Keppapilavu who are protesting for the return of their land. 

The Sri Lankan president has instructed the army to return lands in Kepapilavu, Puthukkudiyiruppu and Kilinohchi back to the Tamil people, the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R Sampanthan said on Monday citing a meeting he had with the president.

Sri Lanka's prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe pledges this week that he would bar provincial councils from discussion separatism, reported the Daily Mirror. 

The Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena told those attending a military event held in Mannar on Monday that his government had won "international honour" for the country's security forces. 

Sri Lanka's forces stand accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against the Tamil people at the end of the armed conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). 

The British government has spoken out against an attack on a church in North West Sri Lanka by a group of Buddhists headed by a monk last month.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Alok Sharma said the UK condemns “all violence against religious minorities, including the attack on a church”.

Tamil university students in Kilinochchi joined the ongoing protest by families of the disappeared in a solidarity demonstration on Sunday. The families' protest demanding information and accountability for their missing loved ones has been ongoing for seven days.

The displaced people of Valikamam North carried out a demonstration on Sunday morning in solidarity with the protesting people of Pilavu and Puthukudiyiruppu.

The Sri Lankan president, Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday reiterated there would be no foreign judges in any domestic war crimes probe. 

Speaking at an event in his home town of Polonnaruwa Mr Sirisena was quoted by Colombo Page as saying "the government was able to bring an end to the issue of international judges called for judicial investigations to be carried out on the alleged war crimes."

The Sri Lankan police said the shooting of the Batticaloa Land Reform Commissioner, Nesakumar Vimalaraj  on Wednesday was a contract job over Mr Vimalaraj's opposition to land in Eravur being illegally aquired by politicians, the Daily Mirror reported. 

According to the paper, police have instructed two teams to investigate the shooting.