The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) today issued its findings on Sri Lanka, after reviewing it in its latest session.
The findings contain the Committee’s main concerns and recommendations on the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, as well as positive aspects. Key issues include:
Sri Lanka
The Committee was concerned about the lack of a comprehensive register of disappeared persons and the limited progress in clarifying their fate and whereabouts, noting that the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) had only traced 23 disappeared persons out of the 16,966 received cases. It also stated its concern about the high level of impunity, reflected in the lack of progress in the investigation and prosecution of alleged enforced disappearances, including those that occurred during the armed conflict. The Committee asked Sri Lanka to consolidate a comprehensive and updated register of all disappearance cases and to strengthen the OMP to search for disappeared persons, investigate the alleged disappearance and ensure accountability in all registered cases. The Committee further called for including war crimes and crimes against humanity in its legislation, and speeding up the establishment of an independent Public Prosecutor Office.
The Committee was concerned about the accidental discovery of at least seventeen mass graves. It underscored the limited forensic capacity among competent authorities and the absence of centralised ante-mortem and post-mortem databases as well as a national genetic database. It urged the State Party to strengthen the capacity of competent national institutions to locate and identify mass graves, seek and conduct exhumations, and develop a comprehensive strategy for the search for, identification, excavation, and investigation of identified burial sites. The State Party should build forensic capacity across all competent authorities for the identification, safekeeping and dignified return of identified bodies and human remains to their families, ensuring the secure preservation of the human remains and their chain of custody. Sri Lanka should also create a centralised, comprehensive ante-mortem and post-mortem database and establish a genetic one.