A senior United Nations official has issued a grave warning on the deteriorating crisis in Sudan, stating that the risk of genocide remains “very high” as ethnically targeted violence continues to escalate. Addressing the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Virginia Gamba, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Acting Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, expressed deep concern over ongoing atrocities committed by both warring factions in Sudan.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry has claimed that a “constructive discussion on domestic reconciliation processes” took place during a meeting with visiting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, despite years of inaction and sustained rejection of such mechanisms by Tamil victim-survivor communities.

The Adayaalam Centre for Policy Research (ACPR), a Jaffna-based think tank organisation, has issued a strongly worded letter to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, urging him to avoid enabling Sri Lanka’s continued “denial, repression, and impunity” during his official visit to the island this week.

 

Dominic Premananth, a Tamil lawyer and human rights activist, has called on the UN High Commissioner Volker Türk to “speak to the affected Tamil people and see the truth” during his visit to the island this week.

A major road connecting Buthanwayal to Madavalasingan Kulam in the Karaithuraipattu division of Mullaitivu district has been abruptly severed due to ongoing bridge construction, leaving Tamil farmers in distress and accusing government officials of negligence.

The Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) has written to the Minister of Justice and National Integration, Harshana Nanayakkara, urging the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), following its findings in the case of Mohamad Liyaudeen Mohamed Rusdi.

Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath has said that only a handful of the nearly 20,000 Sri Lankans currently in Israel have requested to return home, despite escalating tensions in the region due to Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran and its assault on Gaza.

Ilankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi (ITAK) parliamentarian Shanakiyan Rajaputhiran Rasamanickam has criticised the National People’s Power (NPP) party, accusing it of lacking consistent principles after it supported the candidate from the paramilitary Tamil Makkal Viduthalai Pulikal (TMVP) in the Vakarai Pradeshiya Sabha council vote.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has arrived in Sri Lanka, marking the first visit by a UN rights chief to the island since 2016.