An updated draft United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution on Sri Lanka was released this morning, showing some changes to the language of the text but still falling short on Tamil demands for an international accountability mechanism. 

Sri Lankan soldiers took over the role of the medical staff who were conducting a nation-wide strike in late February, as militarisation of the North-East intensifies. 

The medical staff abstained from work from February 24 to February 25, making a set of demands including the granting of promotions for government staff and assigning permanent employment to workers who have completed their probation period. 

The Sri Lankan Air force (SLAF) marked its 70th anniversary with a joint air display with the Indian Air force (IAF) in Colombo which was attended by accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Chief of the Indian Air force Rakesh Kumar Singh Bhadauria, as jet staged numerous flyovers and joint manoeuvres over the Katunayake Airbase following preparatory flyovers over the Galle Face Green.

The US House Foreign Affairs Committee called on Washington to “reassert its leadership role on human rights and support calls for justice in Sri Lanka,” as the United Nations Human Rights Council continues to discuss a new resolution on accountability for mass atrocities.

In a series of tweets this week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee shared an op-ed piece by Ahimsa Wickrematunge, the daughter of murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge, as she called for the international community to ensure “murderous autocrats pay a price”.

The daughter of murdered Sri Lankan journalist Lasantha Wickrematunge said that “Rajapaksa’s election has closed every door to human rights and accountability in Sri Lanka” in a piece for the Washington Post this week, as she called for the international community to ensure “murderous autocrats pay a price”.

“I hold Rajapaksa responsible,” wrote Ahimsa Wickrematunge.

Leeladevi Anandanadarajah, the secretary of the North-East Relatives of the Missing Persons Association, adressed the United Nation Human Rights Council this week, as she criticised praise of Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanisms, particularly the Office for Missing Persons (OMP), calling instead for a referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Tamil families of the disappeared held a rally in Kilinochchi this week, calling on the international community to place sanctions on Sri Lankan officials accused of mass atrocities and for the state to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

Protestors demonstrated on the roadside in the city, with banners calling for Magnitsky sanctions to be placed on Sri Lankan officials accused of rights abuses and for an ICC referral.

A hunger strike has been launched in Batticaloa, in solidarity with a British Tamil woman who is protesting in London, as calls for Sri Lanka to be referred to the International Criminal Court continue to ramp up.

Families of the disappeared and civil society members commenced their protest in front of the Mamankeswaram Pillaiyar temple in Batticaloa yesterday, as similar hunger strikes also took place in Jaffna and Canada.

Students at Jaffna University echoed demands for Sri Lankan to be referred to the International Criminal Court, as a rotating hunger strike being carried out by students entered its fifth day.

Jaffna University Arts Students' Union President P. Ujanthan spoke to reporters in Jaffna this morning and called on the international community to exert diplomatic pressure on Colombo in order to ensure justice for genocide.

Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West called on the UK government to "play a much bigger role" in holding Sri Lanka accountable for the human rights abuses they committed at the end of the armed conflict in 2009. 

The British parliamentarian drew attention to the UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet's "devastating report" which highlights that "progress on human rights has continued to be very poor in Sri Lanka."