President Maithripala Sirisena will fly to Malta on November 26, 2015 to attend the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, which is to be held between November 27-29 in the country.

Sirisena is the Chairman of the Commonwealth of Nations and will handover it to Malta at the 2015 CHOGM. Sri Lanka hosted CHOGM in 2013 when former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was in power.

Originally Mauritius was to host the 2015 CHOGM, but lost the honor to host the event since its head of government boycotted the meeting in Sri Lanka.

President Maithripala Sirisena told the Northern Province Ministers that he was not opposed to the release of political prisoners but it should be done according to the legal procedure.

He made this observation during discussions with Northern Province Chief Minister C. V. Wigneswaran and other ministers yesterday, the NPC Health Minister P. Sathyalingam said.

This was the first such official discussion between the President and the Ministers of the NPC.

The President revealed that the Attorney General will file a report on the inmates on November 16. Their release will be carried out based on this report, the President further maintained.

A special meeting chaired by President Maithripala Sirisena wil be held on Wednesday afternoon at the Presidential Secretariat to discuss the Avant Garde controversy.

This meeting is held according to the decisions taken at the special Cabinet meeting yesterday.

Speaking at an event in Beruwala, Minister Dr. Rajitha Senaratne said that all stakeholders including security forces will be represented in this meeting.

Avant Garde controversy, which started with the discovery of a floating armoury in Galle Harbour this January, forced the resignation of former Minister Tilak Marapana yesterday.

President Maithripala Sirisena said that a special Cabinet meeting will be held on the Avant-Garde controversy on November 11 at 10am.

This comes following the heated exchange in the Cabinet meeting last evening, when Dr. Rajitha Senaratne and Patali Champika Ranawaka had criticized Law and Order Minister Tilak Marapana.

They accused Marapana of trying to make a serious matter appear trivial and questioned him being the lawyer of the Avant-Garde Maritime Securities company.

President Maithripala Sirisena asked political parties to submit their written suggestions on the future course of action on the UNHRC resolution within two weeks.

Addressing the All Party Representatives Meeting at the President’s office, Sirisena stated that different ideas, suggestions and criticism are important factors in a democracy.

The President pointed out that Sri Lanka was discussed for three years at Geneva and added that the recommendations put forward at the recently-concluded sessions has taken a positive stride, in contrast to the recommendations made at the earlier sessions of UNHRC.

President Sirisena pointed out that Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera assured the UNHRC that the government will take necessary measures to implement a process which addresses matters of non-recurrence, establishment of an office on missing persons and reparation.

The president added that the report suggests that both sides of the conflict have committed human rights violations. The president said that there were reports in the media that this resolution must be rejected by the government. However, the President reiterated that a responsible government has to face the UNHRC recommendations along with the main parties concerned.

Sirisena stressed that the government of Sri Lanka has a strong stance in this matter and added that the objective of the all party representative meeting was to find the end result of this process.

Representatives of 21 political parties were present at the All Party Representatives Meeting. These included political parties represented in Parliament and some parties which are not represented. Non-parliamentary parties included the Democratic Party led by Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka.

President Maithripala Sirisena on Friday pledged to commence a special process at the end of the month to address and solve the issues of Tamil prisoners arrested and detained under the prevention of terrorism laws, Opposition Leader R Sampanthan told BBC.

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The undertaking was conveyed to Justice Minister, Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe and Opposition Leader, R. Sampanthan over a telephone conversation on Friday.

Accordingly, the government would commence a special process on October 31 to solve this issue, which would be complete by November 7.

TNA MPs Sampanthan and Sumanthiran met Rajapashe at the Justice Ministry on Friday to discuss the issues of prisoners who had launched a hunger strike, calling for their release and to expedite the cases which had been in progress for years.

Both Rajapakshe and Sumanthiran visited prison inmates in the Welikada prison earlier in the week where Rajapakshe pledged to convene a high level meeting of government ministers to discuss the demands raised by the prisoners.

He also said that the government would solve the issue by the end of the year.

However, since the inmates rejected this undertaking, the TNA MPs met with Rajapakshe to discuss the matter.

The suspected ex-LTTE detainees launched a hunger strike last Monday across several prisons in the island.

Northern Province Chief Minister C.V. Wigneswaran expressed his confidence in President Maithripala Sirisena's ability to achieve peace and prosperity.

President Maithripala Sirisena rejected the claims that the mechanism to be introduced to investigate alleged war crimes is a hybrid court.

Giving a special statement following his return to the island last evening, Sirisena said that any mechanism will be introduced according to the constitution. He added that he would call for an all party conference to discuss the solutions to the rights issues.

The President also said that he would call a forum for scholars in the country and abroad to express their views for this purpose.

Answering the claims that this process has singled out Sri Lanka, Sirisena said such resolutions have been moved against some other countries as well.

He said most countries dragged those inquiries for a long period but Sri Lanka would not burden the people.

Sirisena pledged that this issue will be solved within a short period without causing any damage to any party. There will be no talk of electric chairs again, he stressed.

President Maithripala Sirisena told Somini Sengupta of the New York Times that the mechanism to investigate alleged war crimes in Sri Lanka must be domestic and will be set up after what he called careful consultations with religious leaders, politicians and military officials.

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Sirisena was unwilling to commit himself to any particular judicial mechanism, the NY Times said. He said that he would keep an open mind and make sure it was in keeping with Sri Lanka’s Constitution.

Sirisena further said that he had taken over a country isolated by the international community. His main challenge was to win back the international community, he added, expressing the belief that he was successful in it.

Full article by Somini Sengupta of the New York Times:

Nine months after he was elected to bridge bitter ethnic divisions at home, Sri Lanka’s president, Maithripala Sirisena, spent the better part of this week in New York trying to reassert his country’s place in the world.

On Monday, he offered five infantry battalions for United Nations peacekeeping missions, a gesture that was welcomed at a summit meeting chaired by President Obama. That was in sharp contrast to Sri Lanka’s offer of helicopters when its previous government was under scrutiny for failing to address accusations of atrocities and other human rights abuses during the long, bloody conflict between the Tamil ethnic group and the majority Sinhalese.

On Wednesday, in a speech to the General Assembly, Mr. Sirisena promised “a plan of action in Sri Lanka to advance human rights.”

On Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution that Sri Lanka co-sponsored, signaling its desire to create a credible judicial process to try accused war criminals and involve foreign lawyers and judges in that process.

The resolution, adopted by consensus in Geneva, crucially left open the question of exactly what kind of court would be established, but it was enough to win plaudits from the United States and Britain. The president would not say how foreigners would participate. “This is something new to our government and to our people,” he said through an interpreter. “It’s a new experience.”

Mr. Sirisena, over tea at his hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, said the court would be established after what he called careful consultations with religious leaders, politicians and military officials.

Setting up a war crimes tribunal, involving foreigners no less, is a highly delicate matter. It follows a report by the United Nations, which concluded that both sides had likely committed war crimes and that an independent judicial process involving foreign judges was needed, with the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, saying bluntly that Sri Lanka is “not currently equipped to conduct an independent and credible investigation.”

The report described extrajudicial killings and disappearances, and gave accounts of torture and sexual violence. (Sri Lanka is not a party to the International Criminal Court.)

“I took over a country isolated by the international community,” Mr. Sirisena said, after a marathon set of speeches and meetings. “The main challenge I faced was to win over the international community. I believe these efforts have borne fruit.”

Asked for evidence, his ambassador to the United States, Prasad Kariyawasam, jumped in to say that the president had been offered a seat at the head table at lunch with Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, along with Mr. Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Sirisena said his offer of assistance in peacekeeping efforts had been welcomed.

Mr. Sirisena promised to help with more soldiers, including special forces units and experts on clearing unexploded ordnance. It put the onus on the United Nations system to carefully vet those soldiers, and roles they might have played in Sri Lanka’s own war.

Mr. Sirisena’s challenges are significant, both politically and legally. He was elected in January, defeating the incumbent, Mahinda Rajapakse, with a promise to heal the wounds from the civil war.

In the interview on Wednesday, Mr. Sirisena was unwilling to commit himself to any particular judicial mechanism, saying he would keep an open mind and make sure it was in keeping with Sri Lanka’s Constitution.

Sri Lanka does not allow foreign lawyers to practice in its courts, an aide to the president said later, and it was not possible for the country to set up a new international court without amending the Constitution, which would be extremely difficult politically.

“The mechanism must be domestic,” Mr. Sirisena said. In a measure of the lingering distrust, Kasippilai Manoharan, the father of one of five students killed by security forces on a beach near the port of Trincomalee in 2006, said he was skeptical of any judicial process that was not truly international. “I trust the international community and the Human Rights Council, but I’ll never trust Sri Lankan courts,” he said in an interview.

The society has shirked its unconditional responsibility for the protection of children and this mistake must be rectified immediately, President Maithripala Sirisena said in his International Children's Day message.

Commenting further on the issue, the President said that provisions must be made to implement laws and introduce new laws or amend existing laws to safeguard the children.

"Parents, elders and the society must commit themselves to save children form this catastrophe," the President further said.

The President's International Children's Day message:

"The child must receive protection first from the parents, then from teachers and thirdly from elders and the society. Unconditional responsibility for the protection of children lies with the entire nation. However, recently reported incidents show that responsibility has been shirked by the society. This must be rectified immediately and provisions must be made to implement laws and introduce new laws or amend existing laws.

"Parents, elders and the society must commit themselves to save children form this catastrophe. The government has taken steps in that direction and the society too must join this cause to safeguard children from disaster.

"Parents must realise that their constant attention is an assurance of child's safety. Lapse in attention means that the child is unsafe. It is an open invitation for possible harm.

"By celebrating International Children's Day merely for a day is not sufficient. If every day is committed to the safety of children, they will be secure in the life they aspire."