Dr Gideon Boas, Associate Professor in the Monash University Law School and a former Senior Legal Officer at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, writes on Australia’s response to war crimes charges filed in a local court against Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa:

The Sri Lankan government dismissed human rights concerns raised by delegates at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Perth, Australia, this week as "propaganda" from the Eelam Tamil diaspora, referred to as the "LTTE rump".

Speaking on Thursday to the ABC news channel, the Sri Lankan president's spokesperson, Bandula Jayasekera, said,

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former British Foreign Secretary and member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, wrote in The Times on Monday:

"How many more lives will it take before the government acts to end mandatory detention?

"How absolutely tragic, but how telling, that an accepted refugee could feel despair enough to take their own life in a detention centre."

Yet more photographs documenting executions, extrajudicial killings and the degradation of Tamil women have emerged said the president of the International Commission of Jurists Australia, John Dowd QC, on Wednesday.

Dowd confirmed the damning evidence had been mailed to him, and he had passed on the evidence to the Australian Federal Police.

India and Australia have confirmed separately that they will not seek a change of venue for the 2013 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, due to be held in Sri Lanka.

Prime Minister Gillard reassured Sri Lankan President Rajapakse at a meeting in Perth that there will be no debate on Sri Lanka hosting the next CHOGM.

Australia's foreign minister, Kevin Rudd, urged the UN Human Rights Council to examine allegations of war crimes in Sri Lanka.

Drawing attention to Sri Lanka's 'LLRC report', due out next month, Rudd reiterated the importance of addressing the concerns raised in the report by the UN panel of experts earlier this year.

Australian Federal Attorney-general, Robert Mc Clelland, has halted the criminal proceedings against Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa, citing diplomatic immmunity.
 
Mc Clelland's spokesperson explained that Commonwealth laws extended immunities to heads of state and heads of diplomatic missions. 

The national carrier of Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Airlines, is at serious risk from being barred from entering European airspace due to safety concerns by the European Aviation Authority.

Sri Lanka’s The Island reported the airline is on ‘virtual notice’ and safety audits on the carrier’s planes have become almost mandatory at European airports.

The UK’s independent media regulator, Ofcom, has found that Channel 4’s documentary examining war crimes in Sri Lanka did not breach any broadcasting codes and was impartial.

The documentary, broadcast in June this year, examined the final events of the Sri Lankan government’s offensive in the Vanni, where they have been accused of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

In a statement Monday, Ofcom said, 

"Channel 4 has a unique public service remit to provide programming that is challenging, diverse and likely to provoke debate. Consequently, the broadcaster has a history of broadcasting very challenging material from war zones (including graphic footage) and seeking out the voices and views of those who may not be represented.”

"Ofcom therefore concluded that overall Channel 4 preserved due impartiality in its examination of the Sri Lankan government's actions and policies during its offensive and there was no breach of [the broadcasting code]."

See report from the Guardian here.

Malcolm Fraser, the former Liberal Australian Prime Minister, has urged the Australian government to toughen its stance on Sri Lanka until there is an investigation into war crimes on the island.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Fraser said,

Ahead of the CHOGM in Perth, writing in the Trinidad Express on Monday, Peter Kellner, journalist and chairman of the Royal Commonwealth Society, accuses the conference and the institution of the Commonwealth of "sleeping walking into irrelevance".

An umbrella organisation consisting of 180 groups, representing over a million Canadians, passed a resolution last week expressing its support for the self-determination of the Tamil nation and calling for an immediate halt to the ongoing genocide in the Tamil homeland.