On the UN's International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne says Australia must step up to help.

"State-sanctioned disappearance is a widespread problem in our region and Australia needs to actively participate in improving this horrible situation," said Senator Milne.

"It's shocking that recent UN figures show the Philippines, Nepal, Timor Leste, India and Indonesia each have hundreds of reviewed and outstanding cases.

Greens Leader Senator Christine Milne has called on the Abbott government to deny an extremist alleged to have masterminded anti-Muslim violence in Sri Lanka entry to Australia.

Gnanasara Thero, who has been instrumental in inciting hatred against religious minorities in Sri Lanka and who is the General Secretary of the extremist Bodu Bala Sena sect, has applied for a visa and intends to tour Australia. Gnanasara Thero has reportedly been denied entry to the UK, France and the US.

The Australian Greens are rejecting praise from a visiting member of the Rajapaksa family, saying 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 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 Leader, Senator Christine Milne, uses a speech in the Senate to call on the Abbott government to support the international investigation into war crimes in Sri Lanka.

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 new evidence of war crimes in Sri Lanka, released by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre's International Crimes Evidence Project, highlights Prime Minister Tony Abbott's sell out of human rights and appeasement of Sri Lanka by his refusal to promote a full and independent investigation of war crimes through the United Nations.

"Prime Minister Tony Abbott's ‘turn a blind eye' appeasement of the Sri Lankan government is a cynical political ploy to bolster his cruel refugee policies here in Australia," Senator Milne said.