International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances
On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, IDCTE stands with the tens of thousands of Tamil families who, for over three decades have carried the unbearable weight of not knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones.
Enforced disappearance was used by Sri Lanka’s security forces as a deliberate instrument of war against Eelam Tamils. Tens of thousands were taken from their homes, displacement camps, checkpoints, and from the final stages of the war in 2009 - many after surrendering to Sri Lanka’s security forces under assurances of safety. Till this day Sri Lanka holds one of the highest numbers of enforced disappearance cases in the world.
The Offie of Missing Persons (OMP), established in 2018 as Sri Lanka’s domestic mechanism for addressing enforced disappearances, has failed to deliver what Tamil families were promised. Nearly a decade on, the OMP has neither established the fate of the disappeared nor provided accountability.
Families of the disappeared across Tamil homeland have made clear, through protests that they no longer place any faith in domestic mechanisms established by the Sri Lankan state.
Their key demands remains an independent international investigation into enforced disappearances. Successive Sri Lankan governments, including the current JVP/NPP adminstration have continuously rejected any international accountability mechanism, insisting instead on domestic mechanism that have shown no tangible progress in delivering justice.
On 25th of August 2026, when the OMP held an event at the Jaffna District Secretariat, attended by Sri Lanka's Justice and National Integration Minister and the OMP's chairman, families of the disappeared gathered outside in protest, rejecting the compensation and death certificates offered through the OMP.
When the families attempted to display their banner, Sri Lanka's police obstructed them and dragged it away, and families of the disappeared were restricted from accessing the premises.
The Justice Minister, present nearby, chose to observe the protest through a livestream rather than step outside to speak with the families.