UK Prime Minister David Cameron's historic visit to war-ravaged Jaffna, the first by a foreign head of government since Sri Lanka's independence from Britain in 1948, took the spotlight away from the summit of the 53-member grouping.
He gave an ultimatum to Sri Lanka to conduct a credible inquiry into the war crimes by March, failing which he would seek an international investigation.
A defiant President Mahinda Rajapaksa, however, rebuffed Cameron and said Lanka must be trusted to conduct its own probe.
Throughout the year, Sri Lanka battled international pressure over a credible inquiry into the alleged rights abuses in the closing days of the quarter century civil war.
In March, UN's Human Rights Council passed a US-sponsored resolution, which was backed by India, on ‘Promoting Reconciliation and Accountability in Sri Lanka'.