Jegath Jayasuriya, a former Sri Lankan army commander and the government's current Ambassador to Brazil, is alleged to be complicit in the torture that took place at the Joseph Camp in Vavuniya between August 2007 and mid-July 2009, according to a report released by the International Truth and Justice Project (ITPJ).

The report, launched this week, describes the many incidents of torture at the Joseph Camp – formally known as Vanni Security Force Headquarters.  

The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) passed a resolution this week, stating that Sri Lanka had “not taken any meaningful steps for a credible justice process and an accountability mechanism that it had accepted, promised and committed to”.

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.

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 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.

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". 

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.

The European Union and Sri Lanka agreed that the full implementation of UN Human Rights Council resolution 30/1 remained a priority.

In talks between the EU delegation to the Working Group on Governance, Rule of Law and Human Right and Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, both sides claim to have reaffirmed their joint commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights which included the full implantation of the October 2015 resolution.

Ten Sri Lankan soldiers accused of the Siruppiddy murder – the abduction and murder of two Tamil youths in 1997 – are to be acquitted on the instruction of the Attorney-General. Out of fourteen soldiers remanded, ten were ordered for acquittal, and nine were released with the other having already died.

After the murder in November 1997, sixteen soldiers attached to the Siruppiddiy army camp, including a Lieutenant, were arrested in connection.