As the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council is set to vote on a crucial resolution on Sri Lanka tomorrow, politicians in Tamil Nadu have come out with statements urging the Indian government to vote in favour of the resolution, and for justice and accountability for Eelam Tamils. 

Sinnarasa Siventhiran, a government school teacher in Kilinochchi, has been summoned by the Sri Lanka's Terrorism Investigation Department (TID), in an entirely Sinhala language notice, to its head office in Colombo for an investigation. 

Peaceful demonstrations calling on the Sri Lankan government to sever ties with the Myanmar military junta were held by Tamils in Mannar and Batticaloa last week. 

Organised by the North-East Coordinating Committee, the march was joined by human rights activists, civil society forums, people affected by the war and the general public from the North-East. 

In Batticaloa, people and institutional representatives from the surrounding districts of Trincomalee and Ampara also congregated in the Gandhi Park in the district. 

We explore figures from the early decades of the Tamil struggle by animating and bringing to life photographs taken throughout the decades.

Using the ‘Deep Nostalgia’ feature, developed by the genealogy platform MyHeritage, the animated photographs offers a chance to see some of the Tamil struggle’s most memorable figures and moments in a new form.

For many of these figures, no video footage of them exists.

Speaking at the 46^th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Oakland Institute states that it is the international community’s “immediate obligation” to “monitor, protect, and promote human rights of ethnic Tamil and Muslim communities” in Sri Lanka.

In a joint statement, the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, a human rights organisation established by the mothers of children kidnapped and “illegally adopted” during the Argentine dictatorship, urged the UN Human Rights Council to pass the draft resolution on Sri Lanka.

^{Photograph: US and Chinese delegations in Alaska this month.}

Earlier this month the United States and China publicly clashed, capturing global attention as the first face-to-face talks between the two superpowers since the Biden administration came into power, descended into a chaotic opening day. 

The British High Court has handed their ruling in support of former Sri Lankan defence attaché Brigadier Priyanka Fernando, who has appealed his conviction of breaching section 4A of the Public Order Act by making a cut-throat gesture at peace Tamil demonstrators outside Sri Lanka’s embassy.

In a bi-partisan statement addressed to the US Secretary of State, 9 members of the US Congress have called upon their government to “actively seek support” for the passage of the current UN resolution as well as to ensure that “accountability and institutional reform in Sri Lanka” remains “a priority on the international stage”.

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”.

                                                          People gather around the tumbled bus trying to rescue passengers.

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”.