This week the Sri Lankan government issued a gazette announcing the proscription of hundreds of Tamils and several diaspora organisations, in a move that has generated shock and outrage across the world. The announcement, which renews and broadens a previous 2014 gazette is designed to criminalise, intimidate and terrorise. It must be immediately condemned.

An estimated 100 Australian Tamils gathered in Sydney to protest Australia’s continued detention of refugees such as Rajan Navanthirasa and the issuing of temporary bridging visas such as the TPV and SHEV which have been granted to most Tamil refugees.

The entrance to the Kittu Memorial Park in Nallur, Jaffna was set on fire in a suspected arson attack on Sunday night.

The National Council of Canadian Tamils (NCCT) has cautiously welcomed the latest resolution on Sri Lanka passed at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), but called on Canada to demand the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to investigate Tamil genocide.

Families of the missing persons, who have been on a rotational hunger strike in Vavuniya, reached their 1500^thday of protest on Sunday. 

(Protest in Pforzheim)

Hundreds have gathered in front of detention centres in Büren and Pforzheim, Germany, to demonstrate against the round-up and planned deportations of as many as 100 Tamil asylum seekers.

The Sri Lankan government has announced a sudden and wide-ranging proscription of hundreds of individuals and several Tamil diaspora organisations, as the regime continues to crack down on Tamil civil society and activists.

Mullaitivu locals carried out a demonstration, as part of an island-wide protest against deforestation.

Sri Lanka's Media Secretary to the Minister of Education has claimed the government will introduce new laws to protect their armed forces from potential war crime trials and possible prosecution from “entities outside of the country”, reports The Morning, as pressure grows on governments around the world to hold Sri Lanka officials accountable for war crimes.

Buddhika Wickramadara echoing remarks made by Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) Chairman G.L. Peiris earlier this month, was quoted as stating that the "current laws of the country are insufficient to protect military officials from being prosecuted internationally".

“Laws would be introduced to ensure military officials cannot be prosecuted by entities outside the country,” he added.

The Tamil Civil Society Forum (TCSF), an umbrella group of Tamil civil society actors based in the North-East has slammed the latest resolution passed by the UN Human Rights Council on Sri Lanka.

A team of parliamentarians visited the Omanthai-Kallikulam area in Vavuniya, following a complaint lodged by villagers and village organisations regarding excessive gravel excavations on the site which goes beyond what was permitted.

Large numbers of Sri Lankan army and police officers were deployed across Jaffna, as stores were forced to close following a sharp increase in the district’s COVID-19 cases.