Offence of Enforced Disappearance : Enhancing the Parameters of Criminal Law of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Enforced disappearances (ED) have been an outspoken and debatable dialogue at different spectrums across the globe during the last century due to complexity of the situation itself. Presently, ED is considered a gross violation of human rights at both international and regional levels. Further, this approach has influenced many jurisdictions to recognise the ED as an offence in the domestic levels with the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPAPED) (2010). Recently, the legislature of Sri Lanka passed the enabling statute for the previously mentioned ICPAED in order to guarantee the rights of the victims of the same and further to impose criminal penalties the wrongdoers. The study focuses on assessing and elaborating the new dimensions of recognising a novel penal offence of ED by the introduced domestic statute in expanding the constraints of the criminal law of Sri Lanka. The study is based on legal research methodology which is totally based on the assessment of the qualitative data as analysing the primary sources of domestic and international legal instruments, cases and the secondary sources of books and articles in relation to the area. The study specifies the legal validity of recognising ED as a penal offence at the domestic sphere in order to achieve justice for the harm suffered and finally, the study develops a legal argument in achieving the justice for the victims of ED in Sri Lanka from the treaty-based mechanisms.