A special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council is due Tuesday in Geneva where Denmark and Britain are leading a vocal and sustained campaign to probe charges of purported "human rights violations" and "war crimes" committed by Sri Lanka during the recently-concluded war against Tamil rebels, reports say.
Denmark mustered the support of 17 of the U.N. body's 47 member-countries--against the 16 required--to press for the special session.
The regular session of the U.N. Human Rights Council is due in the third week of next month, and the Sri Lankan issue could have been discussed then. The call for the session follows the deaths of thousands--according to U.N. statistics--in the fierce fighting the past few months between the Sri Lankan military and the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), leading to the decimation of the once-formidable Tamil rebel group a week ago.
Menawhile, Human Rights Watch said Monday that the United Nations Human Rights Council should use the special session to seek commitments from the Sri Lankan government to address the country's worrying humanitarian situation.
"By holding a special session, the Human Rights Council is acknowledging that respect for human rights is just as essential after a conflict ends," said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch, adding: "Although the fighting has stopped, the humanitarian situation is still alarming, and real improvements are needed now."
Meanwhile, Dayan Jayatilleka, Sri Lanka's ambassador and special representative to the U.N. in Geneva, alleged that a section of the West had attempted to prevent the military defeat of the LTTE and save at least a section of its leadership.
"Having failed in that, this (special session) is a punitive measure," he said. He alleged that LTTE sympathizers were being accorded patronage by some Western countries, and sought to know if these very countries would ever accord a similar status to the Taliban and Al-Qaida.
He said Colombo was confident of defeating any resolution detrimental to its interests with the help of friendly countries, including India, Pakistan, Russia, China, Cuba, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and Bolivia. Though all these countries were as much concerned as others about human rights' violations in Sri Lanka, they resented the convening of a special session to discuss the issue, he said.
Jayatilleka said it was regrettable that Sri Lanka was being pulled up when the world should be thanking it for having crushed "one of the biggest brand names in the international terror market."
"They are playing a dangerous game of pandering to militarized lobbies in their own countries," he said, referring to Europe and the pro-LTTE Tamils. He warned that if Europe had its way at the special session, it would lead to the "hardening of sentiments in Sri Lanka, narrowing of the political space and be profoundly counter-productive".
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June 12, 2026 17:14 ET Major central bank action was the focus this week in economic news. The European Central Bank became the first major central bank to move in response to the rising inflationary pressures in the backdrop of the conflict in the Middle East. In North America, the U.S. inflation and trade data as well as Canada’s central bank decision gained attention. The Chinese trade data was the main news in Asia.