The Chief Minister of the Northern Province has called on the Indian government to “apply political pressure” on Sri Lanka in order to bring about a political solution to the ethnic conflict on the island.

Speaking at a farewell dinner in Jaffna to honour outgoing Indian Consul General A Nadarajan, Chief Minister C V Wigneswaran said that “India needs to be robust in its foreign policy with Sri Lanka in order to find a lasting solution to the ethnic conflict”.

Defying repeated calls for demilitarisation of the North-East, dozens of uniformed Sri Lankan soldiers entered a Hindu temple in Vavuniya last month to take part in a religious ceremony.

Sri Lanka's former foreign minister, Mangala Samaraweera sought to allay criticism of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) as a mechanism that targets the Sinhala community, stating that the OMP did not aim to benefit any one community and nor did it aim to target another.

The UN Special Envoy for anti-personnel mines ban arrived in Sri Lanka on Sunday.

Prince Mired Al Hussein is expected to travel to Muhamalai in Jaffna this week, where he will meet with landmine victims and hold meetings with agencies doing mine clearing work. 

He is also scheduled to meet with the president, prime minister and foreign minister during his visit. 

The Canadian government this week called on Sri Lanka to set a clear timetable for implementation of commitments outlined in the cosponsored UN Human Rights Council resolution. 

Families of the disappeared who marked one year since their protest began in Trincomalee have denounced the Office for Missing Persons as a delusion introduced by the Sri Lankan government to pacify the international community while the UN Human Rights Council session takes place.

Tamil Hindu groups protested against the ongoing attacks against Hindu temples in the North on Sunday.

The international community must use all its leverage to ensure accountability and reconciliation has not reached a dead-end in Sri Lanka, the Global Tamil Forum said in a statement on Saturday. 

New Northern Provincial Council member, Sabaratnam Kugathas, recounted his first-hand experiences of the end of the war and the atrocities committed by Sri Lankan state forces, in his maiden speech at the council’s 117th sitting this week.

Despite ongoing opposition to military interference in schools, the Sri Lankan Army held a prize-giving event for high achieving A Level students, at the security forces' highly-criticised Palali headquarters.

The chief monk of a Batticaloa vihara protested the Sri Lankan president’s decision to visit a Tamil Hindu temple during his trip to the city, while neglecting the other faiths.

A signature campaign calling for an international accountability mechanism continued across the North-East this week, with campaign events taking place in Batticaloa, Sankanai, Mannar and Trincomalee. 

The campaign was launched this week in Jaffna by the Tamil Action Committee for International Accountability Mechanism (TACIAM) and supported by the Tamil National People's Front (TNPF). 

Families in Keppapulavu protesting against the Sri Lankan military's ongoing occupation of land marked one year of continuous protests this week. 

Britain’s Foreign Office Minister Lord Ahmad said the Sri Lankan government must make “more progress” in implementing it’s commitments to the United Nations Human Rights Council earlier this week.

Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, the minister said that though 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “this is not a moment for idle nostalgia”.