Let us unite against attempts to disrupt International Day of the Disappeared conference: S. Sivayoganathan
20-Aug-2026.
Human rights activist S. Sivayoganathan has called upon all concerned to unite against attempts to disrupt the International Day of the Disappeared conference.
Speaking on the matter, he said:
The International Day of the Disappeared will be observed on August 30. In connection with the occasion, an international conference is scheduled to be held at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna, organised by families of the forcibly disappeared from the Northern and Eastern Provinces.
Meanwhile, reliable information has been received that certain government-backed groups are engaged in various attempts aimed at disrupting the proposed international conference.
In particular, it is learnt that efforts are being made to divide the families of the forcibly disappeared who have been campaigning for international justice for a long period across the North and East, mobilise a section of them separately and organise a protest in Kilinochchi on the same day.
Such actions could undermine the significance and strength of the international conference to be held at the Thanthai Selva Auditorium in Jaffna. There is also a danger that they could indirectly strengthen attempts to confine the issue of the disappeared to domestic mechanisms of the Sri Lankan Government, particularly through the Office on Missing Persons (OMP).
These developments have caused serious concern among the families of the forcibly disappeared in the North and East who have been campaigning for international justice for many years.
We wish to point out that if such divisive activities, carried out by individuals or certain organisations in the name of protests, continue, there is a risk that our long-standing struggle for international justice could be weakened in the future.
More than 600 family members who campaigned for justice alongside the families of the forcibly disappeared in the North and East have died without obtaining justice. We cannot ignore their sacrifices or the voices of those witnesses who remain alive and continue to campaign for justice.
Therefore, all those who genuinely seek justice must rise above personal political or organisational differences, strengthen the hands of the surviving witnesses and intensify the struggle towards an international justice mechanism, which remains the long-standing demand of the people of the North and East.
Only by moving forward in unity can we strengthen international pressure to hold the Sri Lankan Government genuinely accountable.
The international conference scheduled for August 30 must become an important event that further strengthens, at the international level, the long-standing struggle of the families of the disappeared for justice.
We call upon all families campaigning for justice, civil society organisations and human rights activists to unite and work together without allowing any attempt to disrupt the conference.
“Not a domestic mechanism – international justice is our demand.”
