The Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act, No.14 of 2016; A way forward

Abstract

Every human has the right to free from disappearances (enforce or involuntary) and the many states across the globe which were specially experienced the situations of conflict had took the initiation of protecting this right by introducing a specific legal framework for the same. The Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act, No.14 of 2016 (herein after referred as OMPA) was one of the key statutes passed by the parliament of Sri Lanka during past year in order to establish the justice for the personals who had been subjected to the disappearances due to numerous conditions and situations occurred in the country during the stage of internal conflict and the post conflict era. The study is focused on assessing the level of accuracy and the effectiveness of the domestic legal framework introduced in order to protect the rights of personals subjected to disappearances with reference to the main international legal instrument, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, 2006 (herein after referred as ICPAPEP) as appropriate. The study is based on legal research methodology which totally based on the assessment of the primary sources of domestic and international instruments. The study specifies few practical difficulties in implementing the introduced mechanism under the statute and appraises the level of protection available towards the rights of disappeared persons. The study concludes with recommending few amendments to the domestic statute, highlighting the necessity of guarantying effective intervention of the law and policy makers towards guarantying the right of free from enforce or involuntary disappearances in Sri Lanka.