UN Human Rights High Commissioner Louise Arbour, told journalists last week it would be highly desirable for the government to consider an early ratification of the new International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

She also said in light of the documented violations of international humanitarian law, Sri Lanka should seriously also consider joining the 105 countries which had ratified the Rome Treaty creating the International Criminal Court.

“It is one thing to ratify and another to enforce the convention against enforced disappearances so we will closely study the document before deciding if we will be a signatory to it. The Foreign Ministry is working on this,” the source said.

Almost 60 countries have so far signed the global treaty that outlaws enforced disappearances and allows victims’ families the right to learn the truth about what happened after the pact – approved by the United Nations General Assembly last year – which was officially opened for signature last February.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances contains an absolute prohibition on the practice and calls on all States Parties to ensure that it is an offence under their domestic laws. Significantly, it deems any widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearances to be a crime against humanity.

Article 1 of the Convention further states that no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.Controversially, the United States refused to sign the convention, saying that "it did not meet our expectations". A number of European countries also refused to become parties. These included the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Meanwhile the UN High Commissioner is expected to brief the UN Human Rights Council in December about her recent to visit to Sri Lanka during which she met a cross section of society including families of disappeared people in Colombo and Jaffna.

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