The Northern Provincial Council (NPC) today called on the UN Human Rights Council to refer Sri Lanka to the UN General Assembly and to the UN Security Council in order "to be referred to the International Criminal Court or to a specially created international criminal tribunal set up by the UN". 

In a resolution passed today, the NPC also urged the UNHRC, which is currently holding its 39th session in Geneva, to appoint a UN Special Rapporteur for Sri Lanka and to urge the UN to impose military sanctions on Sri Lanka. 

The organiser of a hartal in Batticaloa this week, Kanapathipillai Mohan, has been arrested by Eravur police for allegedly inciting the hartal and damaging public property. 

The hartal was organised by local businesses and residents to demonstrate against the construction of a bottled water company. 

Mohan was called in to the police station for an inquiry regarding the hartal and was arrested at the station.

The hartal follows a protest last month in Eravur, where residents expressed concern the factory would take excessive amounts of water from Batticaloa's local water supplies. 

Chunnakam police on Sunday arrested three Tamil youths for allegedly carrying swords whilst travelling on the roadside. 

The youths are understood to be from Uduvil, Jaffna and are in their early twenties. 

Chunnakam police state two swords and the youths' motorbikes were confiscated. 

Britain, Germany, Macedonia and Montenegro said that Sri Lanka’s lack of progress in important areas of reform “risks undermining reconciliation efforts” in a statement delivered to the 39^th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) today.

The joint statement by the states, which make up the Sri Lanka core group, said that in co-sponsoring a resolution that called for an accountability mechanism with international judges, “Sri Lanka recognised that national accountability mechanisms are essential to dealing with the past, and to restoring confidence among its communities”.

However, the core group went on to state “these have yet to be established”.

Sri Lanka’s state minister of defence said “arrangements are being made to strengthen security at all times," as he sought to reiterate his government’s commitment to strengthening the military this week.

"I must stress that under the advice of President Maithripala Sirisena, the guidance of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and all security chiefs of security, arrangements are being made to strengthen security at all times," Ruwan Wijewardene told a meeting in Biyagama.

The Sri Lankan navy announced that it had arrested three Tamil men, over a reported attempt to smuggle 118kg of cannabis in Jaffna on Sunday.

The Tamil men, who the navy said were residents of Jaffna and Mannar, were arrested off the coast of Point Pedro.

Sri Lanka's president, Maithripala Sirisena on Saturday vowed to "vindicate security forces" at the UN General Assembly where he is scheduled to deliver a speech on September 24. 

Speaking at an SLFP meeting in Nivitigala, Sirisena pledged that he would "make a statement to vindicate the security forces from all allegations levelled against them," the Daily News reported. 

His comments came as Sri Lanka's poor progress on the co-sponsored UN Human Rights Council resolution was highlighted at the Council's session currently underway in Geneva. 

Sri Lanka is most at risk of an exchange rate crisis, according to a gauge published by Nomura this week, as fears over currency crunches continue to build in emerging market economics.

Nomura’s “Damocles” index, which the bank called an “early warning system”, placed Sri Lanka most at risk out a range of market economies, reports the Financial Times.

Newly appointed UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet said Sri Lanka had “moved too slowly towards meaningful implementation of the transitional justice agenda” in her opening statement to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) earlier today.

Bachelet also stated that in Sri Lanka “recurrent incidents of racist and inter-communal violence are disturbing, as are announced plans to resume use of the death penalty” as the 39th session of the UNHRC began in Geneva.

She noted that though progress was slow, the “the Office of Missing Persons has now begun consultations and institutional capacity-building to fulfil its mandate”.

Families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka have “waited too long to know the truth” about the enforced disappearances of their relatives, said the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UN WGEID) in a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council.

The report stated that “families of the disappeared in Sri Lanka have waited too long to know the truth about the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones”.

“This is an absolute right under the Declaration and an obligation that the State should meet in accordance with international law,” it added.