Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by a Colombo-based NGO against the appointment of Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka as a government minister, reports Colombo Gazette.

The petition, was filed by the Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA), challenged the appointment of the former army commander stating that it violates Sri Lanka’s constitution.

CPA stated that under Article 99A of the Sri Lankan constitution, Mr Fonseka should not be appointed as a minister as district nomination papers or national lists submitted by political parties did not include his name.

The appointment sparked criticism from human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch who said it sends “worrying signals on accountability” from both the Sri Lankan president and prime minister.

The UK government recognises that much remains to be done in Sri Lanka and said it will continue to supporting and encouraging Sri Lanka to deliver "fully their commitments", according to FCO secretary Hugo Swire.

The secretary was responding to a question by the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Tamils (APPG-T), James Berry, who is the MP for Kingston and Surbiton, who said that progress to date "has been slow to non-existent".

Putting forward its proposals for a political solution to the ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and constitutional reform, the Northern Provincial Council urged a federal state structure of two broad linguistic states, including the Sinhala speaking states of 7 provinces and a Tamil speaking North-Eastern state parliament with full land and police powers.

Stressing the importance of ensuring equality within the devolved areas, the NPC called for a Muslim autonomous Regional Council within the North-East state.

The NPC also stated the military should be removed as an occupying force from the North-East, and the Prevention of Terrorism Act should be repealed.

The document was formally handed over the leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R Sampanthan.

Find full document here in English and Tamil.

Extracts of key proposals reproduced below:

"Sri Lanka must basically and fundamentally be declared to contain two broad linguistic States, the Northern and Eastern Province consisting of Majority Tamil speaking State and the other seven Provinces consisting of Majority Sinhala speaking State.

It is essential that a federal system of Government is adopted in preference to a unitary system of Government.

Human rights issues in the Tamil North-East have not yet been settled and the Sri Lankan government is yet to prosecute members of the armed forces responsible for war crimes, said P Ramasamy, the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang.

In a piece entitled “End of war in Sri Lanka, but Tamils still suffering,” the deputy chief minister rebutted the argument that a piece dividend has arrived for the Tamils, stating that “One can hardly talk about the dividends of peace, when major human rights issues concerning the Tamils in the north and east have not been settled yet”.

“The call by international human rights agencies for the Sri Lanka Government to undertake reconciliation measures by accounting for the hundreds of thousands of Tamils who have gone missing, the more than one hundred thousand, mostly innocent women, children and the elderly who were killed during the height of the civil war as well as the rapes and torture inflicted on Tamil women, have not been addressed,” he added.

Mr Ramasamy went on to state,

“The new government of Maithripala Sirisena has failed to punish those responsible for war crimes. Unfortunately, despite calls by international human rights agencies including the United Nations, countries like India and the United States have shown no interest in addressing the human rights violations in Sri Lanka.”

"The war might have ended, but the civilian Tamil population, particularly in the north and east, are being robbed of their properties and land by the Sri Lankan armed forces."

Hundreds of Tamil youth who have been employed as security personnel at financial institutions across the North-East face losing their jobs and being replaced by Sri Lankan troops, said Vanni district Parliament member Sivasakthi Ananthan.

In a letter addressed to Kabir Hashim, Sri Lanka’s Minister for Investment Promotion, Mr Ananthan said that over 100 Tamil youth from the Northern Province and a similar number from the Eastern Province had joined the Rakna Lanka Security Limited Company since the end of the armed conflict, as unemployment remained stubbornly high in the former conflict zone.

Despite having secured these jobs, recent reports in newspapers in the North-East state that the Tamil youth may soon be replaced by Sri Lankan soldiers, as the company looks to making military training a prerequisite for all its personnel.

“Due to this many security officers, who have been employed for more than two and half years, are subject to losing their jobs,” said the parliamentarian.

Sri Lanka has the opportunity to promote human rights and accountability, as the US works with the country to implement the UN Human Rights Council resolution passed in October 2015, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal told a congressional hearing.

Testifying at a Asia and Pacific subcommittee hearing on 2017's budget priorities in South Asia, Ms Biswal said that diplomatic relations between the countries are at an all time high.

"[Our] bilateral relationship has been transformed over the past year, thanks to a unity government led by a president and prime minister that are committed to reforms that can benefit all Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka now has the opportunity to assume its rightful place as a leader in the international community, one that contributes to the global economy; promotes human rights, accountability, transitional justice, and democracy; and that helps to uphold international law," she said in her opening remarks at the hearing on May 10.

The chair of the subcommittee, Rep Matt Salmon said the 2017 budget request for Sri Lanka was a ten-fold increase from previous years, now at $39.8 million and asked the assistant secretary how the increase would work towards bolstering democratic change, and strengthening civil society organisations.

Ranking member Rep Brad Sherman also questioned Ms Biswal, asking her about the pace of reforms. "As I talk to those from the Tamil community I see that progress could be moving forward more quickly toward giving more local power to local to local officials and withdrawing the military from the North-East," the Californian Democrat said.

“Police Scotland is viewed as a worldwide exemplar of law enforcement training and has provided assistance to the Sri Lankan authorities on a project funded by the British High Commission to develop a National Police Academy, with the capacity to deliver accredited programmes.”

“The initial focus has been on the development of training modules in organisational management, ethical leadership and crime investigation supported by the development of academic governance systems and processes in Sri Lanka, and involved a series of deployments of subject specialists.”

“This project followed an earlier three year initiative to develop community policing in Sri Lanka, funded by the Scottish Government.”