"The actions of the Sri Lankan state are all the more brazen given their timing. Sri Lanka is currently coming under intense scrutiny at the 25th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, and yet these arrests show it no longer has any concern over its international image and, more worryingly, indicate that Sri Lanka does not expect the international community to take any concrete action to arrest its ongoing persecution of Tamils."

The Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group (CMAG), the Commonwealth body responsible for dealing with serious or persistent violations of Commonwealth values, came under scrutiny over its handling of Sri Lanka during a press conference following its 43rd meeting in London on Friday.

"The actions taken by the law enforcement authorities are well within the existing legal framework and are carried out to ensure peace, territorial integrity and national unity."

Ananthi Sasitharan addressing UNHRC on March 14th

"The allegations made by Ms. Ananthy Sashidharan and other politicians with vested interests that this arrest was carried out as the suspect was one of their supporters is incorrect and totally baseless.  Such misleading statements are politically motivated and we reject these attempts to hide the truth."

Speaking at a side event Wednesday hosted by the European Union on countering religious hatred while respecting human rights, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Mr. Heiner Bielefeldt, drew upon Buddhism in Sri Lanka to highlight that emboldening identity through religion could cause detrimental effects on rights of other communities.

He was speaking to themes in his address on Tuesday to the UN Human Rights Council earlier this week, and in the report he presented.

The Tamil campaigner Balendra Jeyakumari and her 13-year-old daughter Vipoosika, who were arrested yesterday after a police raid, are being held by the Terrorist Investigation Division (TID) under the draconic Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), local sources said on Friday.

According to other sources in Sri Lanka, Ms Jeyakumari last year submitted a petition on disappearances to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Office in Colombo. The report was submitted whilst the UNHRC met in March for its regular sessions.

Addressing the general debate on the Promotion and Protection of all human rights, civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development, the Northern Provincial Councillor Ananthy Sasitharan made a statement on behalf of the NGO, Collectif des Femmes Africaines du Hainaut (CFAH), in which she called for an international investigation into the genocide of the Tamil people.

Addressing the council again on the general debate of the Item 2, Annual report of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and reports of the Office of the High Commissioner and the Secretary-General, Ananthy Sasitharan spoke for a second time on behalf of the NGO, Collectif des Femmes Africaines du Hainaut (CFAH), calling for a Commission of Inquiry as an immediate step to halt the on-going genocide taking place in the North and East of Sri Lanka.