Sri Lankan plantations are under investigation by international ethical label groups after an expose found illegal wage deductions were leaving some workers taking home as little as 26 rupees (14 US cents) a day.

In an investigation of nine Rainforest Alliance-certified tea estates by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, daily earnings were found to be widely cut by more than three-quarters for debt repayments, salary advances and several other fees. Six of the estates were also backed by Fairtrade.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has hit back at claims by Sri Lankan government officials that have appeared in the Colombo media, stating it “seriously misrepresents” her meetings with the government delegation.

“I am deeply disappointed by the spin that has been put on my discussion with the Sri Lankan Government delegation,” said Michelle Bachelet in a press release this morning.

The Sri Lankan government is reported to be hesitating over Japan's US $1 billion loan for the third phase of the Central Expressway project, stating the conditions attached are too severe. 

Families of the disappeared this week expressed fury at the UN Human Rights Council's decision to grant a two year extension to Sri Lanka to implement resolution 30/1. 

Devotees and residents of Neeraviyadi temple in Mullaitivu accused police of partiality over the occupation of the temple by a Buddhist monk. 

Sri Lanka’s president claimed that the government’s representative at the United Nations had co-sponsored a resolution on accountability without his knowledge and claimed that doing so was a betrayal to the military, earlier today.

Maithripala Sirisena claimed Sri Lanka’s UN representative in Geneva committed his government to co-sponsor a resolution at the Human Rights Council without his consent. The Associated Press added that he called the co-sponsorship “akin to betraying the armed forces”.

Tamil refugees who fled Sri Lanka and sought asylum in Tamil Nadu, India have welcomed efforts to grant them citizenship in the country, stating the risk to Tamils continued on the island. 

Sri Lanka, the country that the Lonely Planet declared as the top destination of 2019, is a “holiday paradise is polluted by torture and lies,” wrote Freedom from Torture's policy and advocacy director Steve Crawshaw in The Independent last week.

“This failure to confront, let alone prosecute, past crimes provides the climate in which torture and other abuses continue today,” said Crawshaw. “Torture survivors who have received rehabilitation treatment from Freedom from Torture tell us repeatedly of the importance of seeing those who have committed torture brought to account.”

Sri Lanka's foreign minister, Tilak Marapana today reiterated the goverment's rejection of a hybrid court to provide justice for war crimes as layed out in the UN Human Rights Council resolution, stating instead that any transitional justice process would be "firmly grounded in the constitution and the domestic legal framework". 

A Trincomalee villager in Thennamaravaadi this week reported the illegal encroachment of agricultural land by a Sinhala settler. 

Filing a complaint with Pulmoaddai police, Sithamparanathan said that a Sinhala settler was ploughing the land which belonged to him. 

Police have said they will investigate the matter however, local residents expressed doubt. 

"There have been many cases like this and none of them are resolved," one resident told the Tamil Guardian. 

"The Sri Lankan justice system is not able to stop the majority (Sinhala) people encroaching on our lands," he added.