The ‘International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances’ was observed with state patronage for the first time in Sri Lanka on 30 August. The Office on Missing Persons (OMP) – responsible for searching, tracing and clarifying the circumstances of missing persons, as well as providing support to the family members of missing persons – made a series of recommendations in an interim report that is to be presented to President Maithripala Sirisena later this week.

Key recommendations of the OMP include payment of a subsistence allowance to family members of missing persons, acquiring technology and expertise required to investigate mass graves, and public commemoration of missing persons (even at the national level). According to OMP Chairman Saliya Pieris, these measures proposed by the OMP are in no way to compromise the right of the victimised families to know the truth and receive justice.