Responding to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet’s, damning report on Sri Lanka, members of the Core Group (UK, Canada, Germany, Montenegro, and North Macedonia) expressed alarm over the deteriorating human rights conditions in Sri Lanka whilst Sri Lanka allies accuse the UNHRC of political bias.

Alongside the Core Group, the EU, Australia, and Switzerland alongside a number of other countries voiced concern over the worsening human rights situation in Sri Lanka. Russia, North Korea, Syria, Iran, Pakistan, and China, among others, alleged faith in Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanisms and accused the UN report baseless allegations.

Today marks the 16th anniversary of the assassination of Tamil politician Joseph Pararajasingham, who was shot dead by armed government paramilitary men in 2005.

Sri Lanka's Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara criticised the UNHRC sessions and the institution itself as being a weapon used by the Tamil diaspora and the Western world to weaken Sri Lanka, in an interview conducted by the Daily Mirror this week. 

Speaking at the 46^th session of the UN Human Rights Council, Canada’s Foreign Minister, H.E. Mr Marc Garneau, expressed “deep concern” about the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka and emphasised the need to hold Sri Lanka accountable for crimes committed.

“Canada is deeply concerned at the deteriorating human rights situation in Sri Lanka, which include threats to human rights defenders and civil society organizations, suppression of memorialization, forced cremations of religious minorities and the deterioration of the rule of law” Garneau stated.

A coalition of 22 organisations have called on member states at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to pass a “strong resolution" that affirms an international commitment to protect human rights in Sri Lanka with the prioritisation of victims and their families.

The US Ambassador to Sri Lanka met with Tamil families of the disappeared this week, as she highlighted their struggle to find the whereabouts of their missing loves ones in a set of tweets.

“Imagine losing your son or your husband,” tweeted Ambassador Teplitz. “Now imagine never knowing what happened to him.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called on members of the UN Human Rights Council to back a resolution on addressing “the lack of accountability for past atrocities in Sri Lanka”, in an address to the council today.

Bolivia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, H.E. Mr Rogelio Mayta has condemned the deterioration of human rights globally noting that “members of ethnic minorities have been assassinated and tortured in West Sahara and Sri Lanka”.

Addressing the UN Human Rights Council virtually on Tuesday, Sri Lanka’s Foreig

Sri Lankan army officers attacked a Tamil man outside an army camp in Keppapulavu, Mullaitivu on Thursday (18^th February).

Tamil MP M.A. Sumanthiran is the latest to be questioned regarding his participation in the Pottuvil to Polikandy (P2P) protest held earlier this month, in a series of police inquiries into Tamil MPs that took part in the demonstration.

The Tamil National Alliance (TNA) parliamentarian, who had his Special Task Force security team withdrawn following the protest upon orders of Sri Lanka's public security minister, stated that police officers from several stations in the North-East visited his office yesterday (February 22^nd) in order to obtain statements.

Dominik Frugler, the Swiss ambassador to Sri Lanka visited the Commander of the Jaffna security force, General Priyantha Perera last week, where gifts were also exchanged between the parties, days before the UN Human Rights Council was set to meet.

Jaffna District Secretary Kanapathipillai Mahesan and the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing have announced plans to resettle the 409 families in Jaffna which are internally displaced due to the armed conflict and are living in approximately 23 welfare centres in the district.