A group of international non-governmental organisations have called on the UN Human Rights Council to establish “an international accountability mechanism on Sri Lanka,” warning that there have been “indicators of a significant backsliding on human rights” on the island.

Sri Lanka’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa looks set to dissolve parliament and declare a snap a legislative election, according to reports appearing in the Colombo press on Sunday.

Rajapaksa has the constitutional power to dissolve the parliament from midnight on Sunday when the minimum term of four-and-a-half years has been reached, confirmed Sri Lanka’s Election Chief Mahinda Deshapriya.

A report conducted by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) under the delegation of Switzerland's Federal Office of Justice and Police was released, revealing that Swiss authorities were aware of “irregularities in adoptions from Sri Lanka” between the 1970s and 1980s, during which over 700 children were adopted into the country.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) has called for purely international processes, including potentially referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC), as the only remaining options for securing justice and reconciliation in Sri Lanka. The organisation pointed out that Tamils have "consistently and rightly rejected any reconciliation process that ignores justice and accountability, and it is obvious that no justice or accountability process that is left to domestic Sri Lankan institutions alone can be credible."

Speaking at the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday, ICJ said:

Reconciliation and ending impunity in Sri Lanka still remain a top priority, a senior French diplomat has said, despite the country’s decision to withdraw from co-sponsoring UNHRC resolutions on accountability, reconciliation and human rights.

The Australian Tamil Congress (ATC) released a statement earlier this week, calling for an international criminal tribunal to be pursued in order to prosecute those responsible for mass atrocities in Sri Lanka.

In a statement released at the start of the UN Human Rights Council’s 43^rd session this week, the ATC said that Sri Lanka’s decision to withdraw from co-sponsorship of a UN resolution on accountability “further proves warnings by the Tamil community that the cosponsoring was in itself not genuine and a delaying tactic.”

Sri Lanka’s defence secretary hit back at Human Rights Watch (HRW) last week, denying reports that the security forces had been threatening Tamil families of the disappeared, and claimed these were part of efforts to “discredit” Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a statement detailing the repeated failure of Sri Lanka to establish “a trustworthy domestic mechanism to address impunity” and urged the UN Human Rights Council to "create an international accountability mechanism as a matter of urgency".