Today Sri Lanka will sign the International Convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera said.
The convention was signed in New York by the Sri Lanka’s Permanent Representative in the United Nations in New York, he told the media in Colombo.
Significantly, Sri Lanka signed the convention on World Human Rights Day.
Samaraweera said that the follow up legislation to insert the provisions of the convention in Sri Lankan law will be tabled in Parliament in January 2016.In fact, the cabinet on Wednesday instructed the Legal Draftsman to draft the necessary legislation.
The Minister said that the step is in keeping with the ideals of the January 8 and August 17 revolutions in Sri Lanka, which ushered in and consolidated a new commitment to upholding human rights, democracy, the rule of law for all citizens.
The signing of the convention reflects the view of the Mathripala Sirisena-Ranil Wickremesinghe government that human rights are not an alien concepts that erode national sovereignty, Samaraweera said.
-Agencies
