Geneva, 22 March 2012 - UN Human Rights Council in Geneva is to votes today (22 March 2012) on the US draft resolution on promoting reconciliation and accountability in Sri Lanka. It has been included in the Order of the Day for the morning plenary meeting in room XX between 10.00 - 13.00 hours.

The Globe and Mail, 20 March 2012 - The Harper government is dispatching a delegation to Sri Lanka as it presses the country to launch a post-war reconciliation with its Tamil minority. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird is sending three representatives, MPs Rick Dykstra and Chris Alexander – a former ambassador to Afghanistan – and new senator Vern White. They will conduct a kind of fact-finding mission intended to shape the government’s next steps in dealing with Colombo, a government source said.

by Gibson Bateman, Foreign Policy Journal, March 19, 2012 - As an absolute minimum, Sri Lanka must be on the formal agenda for the 20th session of the Human Rights Council this June. If that does not happen, the US will emerge as the “biggest” loser. Right now, the Council’s 19th session looks like another example of the US government ineffectively using “human rights” as a foreign policy tool. Given all of the diplomatic resources it dumped into this initiative, the US looks rather weak right now. In order for that to change, a lot needs to happen between now and March 21st.

By TOM WRIGHT, Wall Street Journal, March 19, 2012 - U.S. officials said they gained a key ally in their effort to push Sri Lanka to allow an independent investigation of government atrocities carried out at the climax of the country's 26-year civil war against the Tamil Tigers in 2009. Eileen Donahoe, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, said the council this week is set to accept a U.S. resolution to that affect during a meeting in Geneva that ends Friday, despite Sri Lanka's attempt to block it.

New Delhi, March 19, 2012 - Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh said today that India is inclined to vote in favour of a US Resolution on Sri Lanka in the UN Human Rights Council. "As regards the issue of a draft resolution initiated by the United States at the on-going 19th Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, we do not yet have the final text of the Resolution. However, I may assure the House that we are inclined to vote in favour of a Resolution. That, we hope, will advance our objective, namely, the achievement of the future for the Tamil community in Sri Lanka that is marked by equality, dignity, justice and self-respect", Singh said in the Indian Parliament Lok Sabha, in his reply to the debate on the President's address.

By Sai Manish, Tehelka, 18 March 2012 - Despite overwhelming evidence of torture, India is shying away from supporting a US-sponsored resolution to take the Mahinda Rajapaksa government to task, says Sai Manish - And now with pictures of systematic torture of LTTE cadre coming out in the open, things are becoming clearer. Sri Lanka’s dirty war closet holds untold tales of torture and the insane violence unleashed by soldiers and commanders who were yearning for sadistic pleasures. In the heat of the war, the Lankan army misled people to flee into death traps. Those Tamils who survived these traps were then screened and randomly tortured and executed. That should make it clear that the future of justice for Lankan Tamils does not depend on this US resolution. It depends more on how India can use its power to ensure that the innocent women and children who died don’t just get counted as collateral damage — as Colombo wants to make the world believe.

Rediff, March 14, 2012 - The Dravida Munnettra Kazhagam is all set to withdraw its five Union ministers from the United Progressive Alliance-2 by the weekend to express solidarity with the Sri Lankan Tamil issue. The step is expected to be taken to put UPA-2 on notice if India voted in favour of Sri Lanka in Geneva where the United Nations Human Rights Council is currently in session. DMK ministers MK Alagiri, SS Palanimanickam, Jagadrakshakan, Napolean and Gandhi Selvan are expected to meet DMK chief M Karunanidhi by the weekend and offer their resignation letters. Voting on the issue is expected on March 23, but the DMK wants India to commit its policy before a voting takes place.

US State Department Daily Press Briefing, 13 March 2012 - With our partners, we are supporting a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that calls for action on important steps towards reconciliation and accountability while expressing the international community’s concern about the delays in implementation. We are also, as you know, encouraging the Government of Sri Lanka to communicate what it intends to do to implement the recommendations of the LLRC, which made its own recommendations way back in the fall.

AP, WASHINGTON, 13 March 2012 - Robert Blake, assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, said that accountability and reconciliation was in Sri Lanka's best interests, so "they really can achieve peace and security and not sow anger in their own community that could give rise to new violence." "Experience in many civil conflicts around the world has shown that countries that don't take adequate measures to address reconciliation and accountability frequently experience a regeneration of the insurgency that they faced," he told The Associated Press. "We could see very much that similar situation in Sri Lanka."

US State Department Daily Press Briefing, 13 03 2012 - Our goal here is to get the countries of the world to join in encouraging the Government of Sri Lanka to take steps needed to ensure meaningful and lasting national reconciliation after this – their long conflict. This is something we’ve been asking the Government of Sri Lanka and its – through its Lessons Learned and Reconciliation Commission to address for some time. So it remains a serious concern.