30 th August 2024 marked the International Day of Victims of Enforced Disappearance, this
day hit the milestone of 2749 th day of the protest of the mothers, wives and children since
2017 demanding “whereabout and what happened to their loved ones?”, who voluntarily
surrendered, were handed over to the Sri Lankan forces by their families including those
who were arbitrarily abducted, during and after the end of the civil war in May 2009.
15 years had lapsed since the culmination of disappearance occurred and the demand for
the justice continues amid deliberate disruptions and blockades by the armed forces to
disperse them.
Demonstrations & Suppression
A large crowd, predominantly mothers, wives and children marched in North and East of the
island staged massive protests in Jaffna and Trincomalee simultaneously on 30 August
2024.
To add to its disgrace, the Sri Lanka Court of Law 2 granted Sri Lankan police to halt the
demonstrations in Trincomalee stating that the demonstration would create conflict
between ethnicities, disturb the peace and would be a threat to the security.
Nevertheless, it is indeed admirable to note their determination that their struggle for
justice and search for their children would never be suppressed and would continue until
the establishment of justice.
With the arrest of Rajkumar Rajivkanth, a demonstrator, a huge crowd had gathered
outside Trincomalee police station demanding the release.
The demands made by the leaders of the demonstrations are,
- Sri Lanka state insidiously amassed our children with malicious intention. The truth
must come out.
- The prolongation of instituting truth causes undue psychological trauma to the
mothers, wives, and children.
- The enforced disappearances did begin after the end of the war but began long
before that.
- The motive behind was to kill them as a part of the genocidal act.
- We do not have faith in internal justice mechanism and demand an international
process.
1 https://youtu.be/47G6aLkqy9s?si=pAyBCEuOmRMuPj5-
2 https://www.tamilguardian.com/content/silencing-disappeared-sri-lankan-police-granted-court-order-halt-
demonstrations-families
3 https://tamilwin.com/article/police-threatened-protest-for-the-missing-persons-1724998206
- We are dismayed to note that the UN is trying to protect Sri Lanka from its human
rights commitments.
- We demand detailed information of those made disappeared pre, during and post
Mullivaikkal war periods.
- Sri Lanka must expose what happened to those abducted, surrendered, and
voluntarily handed over by the families.
- In August 2024, OHCHR revealed in its report that the families of the disappeared
are being targeted by Sri Lanka.
- We urge OHCHR to cooperate with international community and states to bring the
perpetrators to justice under criminal prosecution mechanism in the International
Criminal Court (ICC).
Facts & Figures
- 146,679 persons are unaccounted for at the end of the war.
- More than 21,000 were handed over by the families at the end of the war, upon
assertion of their safe return.
- 59 children were taken with those surrendered / handed over.
- 300 mothers so far died without knowing what happened to their children.
- Sri Lanka is 2 nd largest in the world for “Enforced Disappearances”.
- UNHRC Resolutions 46/1 and 51/1 initiated “Sri Lanka Accountability Project (SLAP)”
for gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international
humanitarian law.
- OHCHR Report A/HRC/57/19 dated 22 August 2024 signified continuing erosion of
numerous human rights violations in Sri Lanka, inter-alia “Reprisal and intimidation
against families of the disappeared” forms a part.
International Humanitarian Law on Enforced Disappearances – 4 Rule 98
Pursuant to the Rule 98, the Enforced Disappearance is prohibited. Among many other
things, it signifies the following.
- “Enforced Disappearance” is prohibited by international humanitarian law.
- In non-international armed conflicts, parties are also required to take steps to
prevent disappearances, including through the registration of persons deprived of
their liberty (see Rule 123). This prohibition should also be viewed in the light of the
rule requiring respect for family life (see Rule 105) and the rule that each party to
the conflict must take all feasible measures to account for persons reported missing
as a result of armed conflict and to provide their family members with information it
has on their fate (see Rule 117).
- The 24th International Conference of the Red Cross in 1981 considered that
enforced disappearances “imply violations of fundamental human rights such as
the right to life, freedom and personal safety, the right not to be subjected to
torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, the right not to be arbitrarily
arrested or detained, and the right to a just and public trial”.
- The UN General Assembly also condemned enforced disappearances in the former
Yugoslavia in a resolution adopted in 1995. The General Assembly again condemned
enforced disappearances in a resolution on Sudan adopted in 2000.
4 https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/customary-ihl/v1/rule98
- Under the Statute of the International Criminal Court, the systematic practice of
enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity.
- The UN Declaration on Enforced Disappearance, adopted by consensus, specifies
that enforced disappearance constitutes a violation of the right to recognition as a
person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right
not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment and that it violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.
- The UN Declaration on Enforced Disappearance states that the enforced
disappearances inflict severe suffering, not only on the victims but also on their
families.
- The UN Human Rights Committee and the European Court of Human Rights have
similarly found that the enforced disappearance of a close family member
constitutes inhuman treatment of the next-of-kin.
- The UN Human Rights Committee stressed in its General Comment on Article 4 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that the prohibition of
abductions and unacknowledged detention were not subject to derogation and
stated that “the absolute nature of these prohibitions, even in times of emergency,
is justified by their status as norms of general international law”.
- It should be noted that, although it is the widespread or systematic practice of
enforced disappearance that constitutes a crime against humanity, any enforced
disappearance is a violation of international humanitarian law and human rights
law.
- There is extensive practice indicating that the prohibition of enforced disappearance
encompasses a duty to investigate cases of alleged enforced disappearance.
- The duty to prevent enforced disappearances is further supported by the
requirement to record the details of persons deprived of their liberty (see Rule 123).
The Inference of the British Tamils Forum (BTF) on behalf of Tamil people.
There are explicit provisions in International Humanitarian Law and in recent OHCHR Report
A/HRC/57/19 to bring Sri Lanka under an international criminal prosecution mechanism of
either ICC, ICJ or an ad-hoc apparatus.
Forthcoming UNHRC 57 th Session is an important one to emphasise a strong resolution than
the HRC 51/1 and to urge the OHCHR to extend the OSLAP to complete their exercise that
was mandated to them in full as stipulated in OP8 of the HRC 51/1.
- We request the UN and the international community to demand the Sri Lankan state releases information about their whereabouts. In particular:
- Publicise a comprehensive list of people who surrendered during the last phase
of the war – listing the names of all who were detained or arrested, those who
are still in custody (names, locations of detention centres), those who have been
released, and, if released, to whom they were released to.
- Allowing access to the ICRC for those still in official and unofficial detention
centres.
- Political prisoners detained during the war and held without trial should be
released immediately.
- Member states to apply universal jurisdiction principles against the perpetrators of civil
and military establishments in Sri Lanka.
- Set up a pathway to commence international criminal justice mechanism for Sri Lanka
(ICC, ICJ and or ad-hoc international Tribunal).
Comments are closed.