The New Zealand prime minister, John Key was urged to raise ongoing human rights concerns with the visiting Sri Lankan prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who lands in Auckland on Saturday evening.
Amnesty International's New Zealand director, Grant Bayldon was quoted by AFP as saying that whilst it was true progress had been made, much more needed to be done.
"There's two laws that need dealing with, one is the so-called prevention of terrorism act in Sri Lanka - basically it's a licence to abduct people and to torture people, and that has to be repealed," Mr Bayldon reportedly said.
"The second is an actual law that would make enforced disappearances illegal. Sri Lanka has such a painful and long history of people simply disappearing never to be seen again that it needs to specifically deal with this to make sure that it doesn't go back."
His words were echoed by the Green Party MP Jan Logie, who told the news agency that the military occupation of the North-East was another pressing issue.
"What I've heard from people connected to the north is that that act is still in place, and that people are still being taken and there are concerns in those communities, and there's actually been significant protest from people in the north dissatisfied with the window dressing of the Sri Lankan government."
