Amidst the 49^th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), US Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Julie Chung, met with Tamil National Alliance representatives (TNA) R Sampanthan and MA Sumanthiran to discuss “the need for a political solution, accountability & justice for all Sri Lankans”.

Her meeting follows a scathing report by the UN High Commissioner for human rights which slammed Sri Lanka for its failure to produce accountability and increasing militarisation. Her report called for sanctions on senior Sri Lankan officials implicated in war crimes and to pursue alternative avenues for international accountability.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on Sri Lanka's authorities to immediately drop the "clearly spurious charges" against Tamil journalist Murugupillai Kokulathasan, who was released on bail yesterday after spending over 470 days in detention. 

A 21-year-old Tamil Nadu student, Sainikhesh Ravichandran, in Ukraine has joined an international volunteer military force dedicated to fighting off the Russian invasion.

Tamil families carried out protests in Batticaloa and Jaffna yesterday, calling for an international investigation into enforced disappearances and the Tamil genocide. 

As the United Nations Human Rights Council discussed the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, protesters in the North-East took to the streets to demand justice for the disappeared, the unconditional release of political prisoners and to repeal the draconian Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). 

Protests were held in Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi, Vavuniya and Colombo today, as International Women’s Day was marked across the island with Tamil women leading demonstrations.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF)  conducted an Article IV consultation in Sri Lanka where they stressed the urgency to implement a credible strategy to address one of the worst financial crises the country has faced. 

Sri Lanka’s finance minister has urged all Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) heads of local government bodies to switch off streetlights of their respective areas until the end of March to conserve energy as Sri Lanka’s economic crisis continues to worsen.

Students from Tamil Nadu and Kerala who had managed to arrive in Poland with no support from India's Minister of External Affairs, are now facing further discrimination, according to the latest reports.

Although the official policy was supposed to be “first come first served”, Tamil Nadu and Kerala students report being denied the same preferential treatment as North Indians.

Colombo Archbishop Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith told the UN Human Rights Council that the Easter Sunday attacks in 2019 were part of a “grand political plot”, in an address were he called on the international body to ensure there was an “impartial investigation to unravel the truth”.

Tamil journalist, Murugupillai Kokulathasan, has been released on bail today by Valaichenai Magistrate court, after being held in detention for over 470 days under the notorious Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA).