President Maithripala Sirisena has issued a gazette notification establishing the Office of Missing Persons (OMP) with effect from September 15 last night.
It was only two days ago UN rights Commissioner Zeid in his opening statement to 36 session of the UNHRC urged the Sri Lanka government to “ to swiftly operationalize the Office of Missing Persons and to move faster on other essential confidence building measures, such as release of land occupied by the military, and resolving long-pending cases registered under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. “
The extraordinary Gazette notification says that::
‘By virtue of the powers vested in me by Section 1 (2) of the Office on Missing Persons (Establishment, Administration and Discharge of Functions) Act, No. 14 of 2016 as amended by Act, No. 9 of 2017, I, Maithripala Sirisena, Minister of National Integration and Reconciliation do by this Order, appoint September 15, 2017 to be the date on which the provisions of Parts I, II, III, IV and V of the aforesaid Act shall come into operation’.
