Minister of Justice and National Integration, Harshana Nanayakkara led the Sri Lanka delegation to the presentation of Sri Lanka’s initial Report under the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance at the 29thSession of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) on 26 September 2025, in Geneva.
In his opening remarks, Minister Nanayakkara reiterated Sri Lanka’s commitment to safeguarding and protecting the human rights of all citizens, the steadfast ongoing work of the Office on Missing Persons (OMP), Office for Reparations (OR), and Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR), and the robust actions being taken by the national authorities in this regard.
The Minister further elaborated the vision of the Government to make democratic institutions stronger to enhance public trust, and to bring political, economic and social stability. In this respect, he underscored that engaging with the Committee on Enforced Disappearances was not merely a reporting obligation, but an opportunity to strengthen national frameworks, uphold accountability and ensure that the rights and dignity of all persons are safeguarded in line with international standards.
Sri Lanka signed the Convention on Enforced Disappearances in 2015 and ratified it in 2016. Minister Nanayakkara underlined Sri Lanka’s long-standing practice of investigating complaints of disappearances even before the formulation of the Convention in 2006 and its entry into force.
Senior officials from the Ministry of Justice and National Integration, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism, Attorney General’s Department, Office of the Missing Persons (OMP) and the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva joined Minister Nanayakkara in Geneva while other officials from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Public Security and Parliamentary Affairs, Ministry of Women and Child Affairs, Sri Lanka Police, the Department of Probation and Child Care Services, National Child Protection Authority, the Office for Reparations (OR), the Office for National Unity and Reconciliation (ONUR) joined the Review virtually from Colombo.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism
Colombo
26 September 2025
