In advance of a vote at the UN Human Rights Council on a draft resolution concerning Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena decried the allegations levied against the country as being politically biased and called upon India for support to “defeat the false accusations”.

In his statement, Gunawardena claimed that it was “not the responsibility of an internationally recognized Human Rights Council to accuse or take a vote on the internal affairs of our country”.

                                                          People gather around the tumbled bus trying to rescue passengers.

A bus crashed into a moving train bound from Anuradhapura to Talaimannar on Tuesday causing an accident leaving a 14-year old school boy dead and 25 people injured. 

Writing in The Tribune this week, Tamil Guardian Staff Writer Bharati Selvakumar commented on Britain’s historic and current support of Sri Lanka and “whether Britain will live up to its responsibilities and hold Sri Lanka accountable – or if the government will continue to whitewash this genocidal history”.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has scheduled to vote on a resolution on accountability for mass atrocities in Sri Lanka on Monday 22 March.

The vote, which will be keenly watched by those on the island and abroad, will be on a resolution which calls on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to "collect... consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence that could be used in future war crimes trials.

Following widespread criticism of the draft UN resolution, which is seen to fall short on accountability, the British parliament held a debate on the country's commitments to Sri Lanka on issues of “reconciliation, accountability and human rights”.

Responding to Sri Lanka proposed burqa ban and close over a thousand madrassas (Islamic schools), both the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have condemned these recent moves.

Accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speaking at the “Discussions with Village” programme in Galle contested the recent report published by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights stating that he “does not know what human rights abuses we [Sri Lanka] have committed”.

“Discussions with the Village” a programme which began running September 2020, aimed to meet people in remote villages and inquire into their problems and discuss solutions. In this visit to Galle, Rajapaksa discussed the accusation levelled against his government for being complicit in the Easter bombing attacks and highlighted the need for increased militarisation in the North and East. He also commented on the recent damning report published by the Human Rights Commissioner on Sri Lanka.

As the 46^th session of the UN Human Rights Council continues, Jaffna MP C V Wigneswaran has arranged for a conference entitled “Loss of the Tamil Homeland: Identifying issues and creating strategies to preserve Tamil land”.

Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, alongside former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneetham (Navi) Pillay, and leading human rights lawyers David Matas CM and Cherie Blair CBE QC are expected to speak at said conference.

According to new regulations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), Sri Lanka will "de-radicalise" and "rehabilitate" individuals who hold "violent extremist ideology."

The recently issued gazette notification states that any individual that surrenders or is detained for "causes or intends to cause commission of acts of violence or religious, racial or communal disharmony or feelings of ill will or hostility between different communities or racial or religious groups" can be referred to a "rehabilitation programme."