Situation during the visit A/HRC/33/51/Ad d.2 Measures taken/current situation Level of implementation and observations (to be completed by the WGEID) Registrar General’s Department had issued 769 certificates to applicants from the Ampara, Trincomalee, Batticaloa, Jaffna, Killinochchi, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Gampaha and Monaragala districts. OMP The Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provision) (Amendment) Act, No. 16 of 2016 provides for the issuance of Certificates of Absence (CoA). A CoA is a legal document which provides for the status of a missing or disappeared person and enables families of the missing and disappeared to access administrative and financial services and other benefits in the absence of a Certificate of Death. The OMP is mandated to issue Interim Reports to families of the missing and disappeared under a special procedure which enables them to obtain CoAs from the Office of the Registrar General.22 The OMP has engaged with the Office of the Registrar General to fast track the process of obtaining CoAs through this special procedure. Further, families who are in possession of CoAs have made representations to the OMP concerning challenges they experience when dealing with government bodies, financial institutions and foreign missions due to a lack of awareness and or lack of clarity as to the validity and purpose of CoAs, as these institutions refuse to accept the CoA. The OMP made interventions to the Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, all foreign missions established in Sri Lanka and the Governor of the Central Bank to address concerns identified by families. Amnesty The OMP under section 13, is able to issue an interim report to the relative of a “missing person”, in order to enable the Registrar General to issue a Certificate of Absence. Provisions) Act, No. 16 of 2016 and the OMP can facilitate their issuance. However, according to the information received, there are difficulties in recognition of these certificates in practice. The Working Group therefore encourages further efforts to ensure their acceptance. Centre for Justice and Change The lase amended to provide Certificate of Absence but people obtaining it has procedural difficulties on the ground. Families of the Disappeared The government is issuing “Certificate of Absent (CA) to the families who applies for that. “There is a possibility for the families who got the death certificates without seeing or receiving the dead bodies to also get the CA. ICJ No provision in the Act on Enforced Disappearance refers to a declaration of absence. The Office of Missing Persons Act under Section 13 (1) (a) (i) provides that the OMP should 22 OMP Act, above n 16, Section 13(1)(a). A/HRC/42/40/Add.1 24 Recommendations A/HRC/33/51/Add.2