Sri Lanka’s president Maithripala Sirisena blamed “human rights” for hindering discipline at schools at a speech in Matara earlier this week.

Sirisena was quoted as stating that “the interference of the concept of human rights in the duty of teachers has made it a challenge for the task of building a better future generation”.

Muslims in Mannar have continued a protest for the release of their lands from Sri Lankan navy occupation for over three weeks.

Over 200 Muslim families from Silavathurai have been campaigning for the release of 35 acres of land from the Sri Lankan Navy. The protest passed 22 days on Wednesday.

The protesters had faced intimidation from navy personnel at the start of their protest but continued to demonstrate after appealing to the human rights commission for protection.

Lawyers representing Tamil families of the disappeared in Mannar have called for “caution in place of plain speculation”, after a report  dated bone fragments from a mass grave unearthed in the town.

Families of the disappeared appealed to members of the United Nations not to grant Sri Lanka any extension on implementing a resolution it had agreed to in 2015 and instead called for an international accountability mechanism, telling member states that “our lives are in your hands”.

A five member delegation of the Sri Lankan president is to head to Geneva in order to seek a withdrawal from the co-sponsored resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, the country's foreign affairs ministry said today. 

Families of the disappeared in Vavuniya, who launched a signature campaign calling for international intervention in Sri Lanka to ensure justice for Tamils, reached 100,000 signatures this week. 

Residents in Unnichchai and surronding villages protested on Monday, accusing the government of failing to provide an adequate supply of clean drinking water. 

Students at the University of Jaffna launched an awareness rally yesterday, demanding justice for the genocide of Tamils. 

Sri Lankan Special Task Force (STF) officers assaulted two Tamil youths in Karadiyanaru, Batticaloa yesterday. 

Tamil diaspora organisations yesterday welcomed the report by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights on Sri Lanka, which concluded that there had been "virtually no progress" on the investigations of war crimes as detailed in the co-sponsored resolution 30/1.