The United Nations Human Rights Council has scheduled to vote on a resolution on accountability for mass atrocities in Sri Lanka on Monday 22 March.

The vote, which will be keenly watched by those on the island and abroad, will be on a resolution which calls on the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to "collect... consolidate, analyse and preserve” evidence that could be used in future war crimes trials.

Following widespread criticism of the draft UN resolution, which is seen to fall short on accountability, the British parliament held a debate on the country's commitments to Sri Lanka on issues of “reconciliation, accountability and human rights”.

Responding to Sri Lanka proposed burqa ban and close over a thousand madrassas (Islamic schools), both the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) have condemned these recent moves.

Accused war criminal Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speaking at the “Discussions with Village” programme in Galle contested the recent report published by the UN Commissioner for Human Rights stating that he “does not know what human rights abuses we [Sri Lanka] have committed”.

“Discussions with the Village” a programme which began running September 2020, aimed to meet people in remote villages and inquire into their problems and discuss solutions. In this visit to Galle, Rajapaksa discussed the accusation levelled against his government for being complicit in the Easter bombing attacks and highlighted the need for increased militarisation in the North and East. He also commented on the recent damning report published by the Human Rights Commissioner on Sri Lanka.

As the 46^th session of the UN Human Rights Council continues, Jaffna MP C V Wigneswaran has arranged for a conference entitled “Loss of the Tamil Homeland: Identifying issues and creating strategies to preserve Tamil land”.

Leader of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) R. Sampanthan, alongside former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navaneetham (Navi) Pillay, and leading human rights lawyers David Matas CM and Cherie Blair CBE QC are expected to speak at said conference.

According to new regulations under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), Sri Lanka will "de-radicalise" and "rehabilitate" individuals who hold "violent extremist ideology."

The recently issued gazette notification states that any individual that surrenders or is detained for "causes or intends to cause commission of acts of violence or religious, racial or communal disharmony or feelings of ill will or hostility between different communities or racial or religious groups" can be referred to a "rehabilitation programme."

Gopal Baglay, the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, made a trip to the North-East, the traditional Tamil homeland, ahead of a crucial vote on Sri Lanka at the 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council Session (UNHRC) in Geneva. 

During his visit, Mr. Baglay conferred with parliamentarians of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF) in Jaffna on Saturday, 13th March. 

A panel event about the ongoing 46th session of the UN Human Rights Council and what can the human rights body do to deliver justice and accountability for the Tamil people took place on Tuesday. Titled “Pursuing Accountability for Mass Atrocities: What Can the UN Human Rights Council Do?”, the discussion was organised jointly by People for Equality and Relief in Lanka (PEARL) and the School of Public Policy, University College, London.  

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, speaking at the “Discussions with the Village” programme in Galle has vowed to reopen 50 military and STF camps within the Eastern Province, laying the responsibility of the easter Sunday attacks at the previous ‘good governance' regime.

The accused war criminal stated that the previous ‘good governance’ regime led by one-time acting defence minister Mathripala Sirisena had “neglected national security” as a government and were thus responsible for the Easter Sunday attacks. Rajapaksa went on to add that the opening of the camps was because “separatist terrorism or Islamic extremism will not be allowed under our government”.

Commenting on recent comments made by Cardinal Ranjith who called the recent PCol report into the Easter Sunday attacks as “incomplete” as the “authors of these attacks or those who funded them have not been identified”, Rajapaksa claimed that “those politicians are not with us” and that “they are the opposition”.

Cardinal Ranjith added