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UN body concerned with limited progress on disappeared persons’ whereabouts
View(s):The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) said this week that it is concerned about the lack of a comprehensive register of disappeared persons and the limited progress in clarifying their fate and whereabouts.
The UN Committee which issued its findings on Benin, Montenegro and Sri Lanka on Tuesday, after reviewing the three States Parties in its latest session, noted that the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) had only traced 23 disappeared persons 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 disappearances and ensure accountability in all registered cases, and 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 17 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 Sri Lanka 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,” the UN Committee said.
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