What is an enforced disappearance?

A person is ‘forcibly disappeared’ when they are taken – usually without explanation, consent or justification – from their community or family by people working for or with the government. Often victims are never released and their fate remains unknown. Frequently...

How do we know that such a list exists?

Eyewitness accounts, UN reports, and testimony provided by senior members of the Sri Lankan security forces to the government’s Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC, 2010-2011) all attest to extensive personal data collection by the government during the...

How should the list be released?

Included in their demand for the release of the list, protestors said in their June memo to President Sirisena that “the Government should collate this information intelligently and make [it] available to us to find out whether any of our loved ones are on such...

What else are the protestors demanding?

The release of the list of all those who surrendered or were detained during and after the war is but one step in broader plan of action that must be implemented by the government of Sri Lanka in order to address the needs of relatives of the disappeared. In their...

What about families of the disappeared in the South?

While this campaign is in support of the work of Tamil relatives of the disappeared protesting across the North and East of Sri Lanka, it is important not to forget the ongoing plight of the many thousands of Sinhala and Muslim relatives of the disappeared across the...