Image: Mothers of the disappeared march in Colombo supporting the OMP act exactly one year ago. (c)s.deshapriya.
President Sirisena signed the Office on Missing Persons (OMP) Act a short while ago, the President’s Media Division said.
Tweeting at the end of the event the President said ‘I signed the Office of Missing Persons Act today. This marks another step forward in Sri Lanka’s path to sustained peace.’
I signed the Office of Missing Persons Gazette today. This marks another step forward in Sri Lanka's path to sustained peace.
— Maithripala Sirisena (@MaithripalaS) July 20, 2017
Sri Lanka introduced a bill to establish the OMP on the 22nd of May and the Bill was gazetted on the 27th of May 2016.
On June 21, the Office on Missing Persons Bill, presented by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, was passed unanimously in Parliament.
In signing the OMP Act, the President passes into law the first of four specific mechanisms towards transitional justice adopted by the consensus Resolution ‘Promoting Reconciliation, Accountability and Human Rights in Sri Lanka’ adopted at the United Nations Human Rights Council, in 2015.
– DN