The United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) on Thursday adopted the US-sponsored resolution against Sri Lanka on human rights. India voted in favour of resolution. Twenty-five nations cast their vote in favour of the resolution, 13 against and 8 nations abstained.

India did not move any amendment on US resolution against Lanka as demanded by the leading Tamil parties in the country. The Tamil parties also demanded that Parliament pass a resolution condemning Sri Lank for its human rights violation, the draft for which was not tabled despite Government giving assurances.

According to sources the US-sponsored resolution was substantially watered down compared with earlier drafts.
Tamil parties including the DMK and its rival AIADMK and CPI members trooped into the Well of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha raising slogans over the plight of ethnic Tamils in Sri Lanka.

Taking advantage of the pandemonium, the Parliamentarians raised a host of issues including the demand for a separate Telangana state.

The DMK members were also heard raising the issue of CBI raids on party leader M K Stalin's residence in Tamil Nadu on Thursday morning. The DMK, which was an alliance partner in the ruling UPA coalition, had withdrawn support to the Government of the Sri Lankan Tamil issue

In the Lok Sabha, trouble broke out soon after Speaker Meira Kumar read out the obituary reference to Bangladesh President Mohammad Zillur Rahman.

She tried to continue with the Question Hour but as members were unrelenting she adjourned the House till noon.

Rajya Sabha too plunged into turmoil soon after it mourned the death of the Bangladesh President.

AIADMK members led by their leader in the House V Maitreyan trooped into the Well carrying posters of slain LTTE chief Prabhakaran's son, who was allegedly shot dead by the Sri Lankan army.

Their rivals in Tamil Nadu, DMK members also joined the slogan shouting.

Trinmool Congress members too moved into aisles shouting slogans but were inaudible in the din.

Chairman Hamid Ansari pleaded with members to go back to their places and allow Question Hour to proceed.

But none heeded to his request, forcing him to adjourn the House till noon.

“Hundreds of thousands of people have died in genocides in Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina; the Palestinian territories are still occupied; massive violations have occurred in Iraq and Sri Lanka; and war crimes continue to be committed in numerous internal conflicts including those continuing in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Sudan and Syria. We must continue to nurture and strengthen the system designed to deal with such crimes and violations, and those who commit them”, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay at the opening of the 22nd Session of the Human Rights Council, which meet in Geneva.

After 26-years of Tamil insurgency the Sri Lanka's forces brutally cracked down on the LTTE in 2009 and wiped them out uprooting and killing many civilian population. This action came under the lens of human rights violation in reports by UN agencies and other international organisations.
Sri Lanka’s military action left at least 100,000 people dead, but there are still no confirmed figures for tens of thousands of civilian deaths in the last months of battle: estimates range from 9,000 - 75,000.

One UN investigation said it was possible up to 40,000 people had been killed in the final five months alone. Other human rights groups suggest the number of deaths could be even higher.

The 2011 report commissioned by the UN said that most of the civilian deaths were caused by government shelling.

Video footage has also emerged appearing to show serious abuses committed by the army.

But the Sri Lankan government released its own estimate last year, concluding that about 9,000 people perished in those few months.

The Sri Lankan government commissioned its own investigation into the war in 2011.

Its Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) cleared the military of allegations that it deliberately attacked civilians. It said that there had been some violations by troops, although only at an individual level.

In November 2012 an internal UN report said that the UN had failed in its mandate to protect civilians in those final months of the civil war.

During the council's proceedings, Sri Lanka's representative spoke out against the resolution, arguing that it would endanger an ongoing reconciliation process.
The delegate also accused the United States of targeting countries that did not conform to its political agenda.

According to sources the US draft that was up for debate was much milder than an earlier one - among other things 'encouraging' Sri Lanka to take actions rather than 'urging' it, and deleting an earlier assertion that Colombo had broken its own commitments on political devolution to Tamil areas.

Amnesty International said that while the resolution successfully highlighted rights violations, it failed to establish an independent and international investigation into the conflict.

Its strongest passage voices concern at reports of continuing violations. It expresses concern at reports of enforced disappearances, extra-judicial killings, torture, threats to the rule of law, religious discrimination and intimidation of civil society activists and journalists.

This reflects the recent sacking of the top judge in a process domestic courts deemed illegal, and a wave of hardline Buddhist attacks on Muslims and Christians.
The resolution also acknowledges progress made in rebuilding infrastructure but notes that 'considerable work lies ahead in the areas of justice, reconciliation and the resumption of livelihoods'.

Meanwhile students across Tamil Nadu, including in Chennai, continued their protests on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue while some fishermen in Nagapattinam district observed a fast mid-sea.

Around 500 students were arrested in two different incidents at Chennai when they tried to proceed towards the house of Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram to picket it, police said.

Another group of students were arrested for trying to stage a protest near the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission.

Various student bodies and political parties conducted a series of protests including demonstration, fast and rail and road blockade. An effigy of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was burnt by protestors here, police said.