Greens Leader Christine Milne has proposed further actions in response to the Bali Nine executions and says the Australian Parliament must demonstrate its cross-party opposition to the death penalty with better safeguards to protect Australian citizens from state-sanctioned execution overseas.

"What happened to Myuran Sukumaran, Andrew Chan and other Australians before them must not happen again. We have a responsibility to do all we can to oppose the death penalty and protect people from it, wherever it exists," said Senator Milne.

On behalf of the Australian Greens I express my deepest sympathies to the families and friends of Andrew Chan, Myuran Sukumaran, and the six other people who have been executed in Indonesia overnight.

Myuran and Andrew will be remembered for overcoming their past to live meaningful lives, even from prison, not just for the way they died.

Their actions over the past ten years were testament to their remorse, and have given many of their fellow prisoners an opportunity to live better lives.

It is a tragedy Andrew and Myuran were denied their own second chance.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne has written to the Indonesian President urging him to reconsider his determination to apply the death penalty to Australians Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukamaran.

"I have asked President Widodo to remember his election pledge to improve respect for human rights, which gave rise to great hope in Indonesia and around the region," said Senator Milne.

"I have shared with the President my hope that his commitment to honouring human rights will extend to the matter of the death penalty.

The Australian Greens say it was not a "bold move" to withhold support from a UN war crimes investigation, but rather a shameful demonstration that Australia is appeasing the government in Sri Lanka to further Tony Abbott's domestic policies on asylum seekers.

"The Rajapaksa government is, in my view, an elected dictatorship. It only came to power because the Tamils boycotted the election," said Greens Leader Christine Milne.

If we needed any more evidence that a large part of the Abbott government's foreign affairs agenda is motivated purely by domestic power games over refugees, we need look no further than the current session of the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva.

A vote is due there tonight on a resolution endorsing an international investigation into war crimes and human rights abuses during the Sri Lankan civil war.

The Australian Greens have called on Tony Abbott to initiate a Royal Commission into the conditions and management of Australia's offshore detention camps, which led to the death of an Iranian refugee while in Australia's care on Manus Island.

"The tragedy of a refugee killed while in Australia's care should be the final nail in the coffin for Labor and the Abbott government's morally bankrupt and cruel offshore processing regime," Australian Greens Leader, Senator Christine Milne said.

As the international community prepares to vote at the March meeting of the United Nations General Assembly Human Rights Council on a war crimes investigation for Sri Lanka, the Australian Greens have moved a successful Senate motion calling for the Australian government to support the independent investigation.

"The Australian Senate has sent a powerful message to the UN and international community about supporting an international independent war crimes investigation in Sri Lanka," Greens Leader Christine Milne said.

Australian Greens Leader Christine Milne says the Prime Minister’s gift of two naval vessels and co-operation with the Sri Lankan authorities to help stop people fleeing the country is collaboration on human rights abuses.

“The Prime Minister’s silence on human rights abuses in Sri Lanka was inexcusable complicity, but this is nothing less than collaboration and it is abhorrent,” Senator Milne said.

“I am devastated and heartbroken at the thought of Australia assisting a disgraced government to suppress and control its citizens.