Recommendations A/HRC/33/51/Add.2 not involved in any way in the commission of past disappearances; Measures taken/current situation Level of implementation and observations (to be completed by the WGEID) The records of past commissions of inquiry are stored at the Department of National Archives (DNA) under Presidential Seal for a period of thirty years and the DNA is responsible for the custody, physical preservation and use of the records.77 In April 2018 the Secretary to the President granted approval to the OMP to access and digitise the relevant records and approval was re-issued in January 2019. The OMP is currently in the process of implementing a plan to access the relevant records. remain in positions of power including within the armed forces and the police where they can influence the progress of investigations (see 78 (h)). Situation during the visit A/HRC/33/51/Ad d.2 Families of the Disappeared 82 (a) –(m) All these recommendations are good. The only thing some are being included in the acts also. But the Government does not have political will to do these. They move very slowly in implementing these recommendations because the government thinks that implementing these won’t increase their vote base in South especially among Sinhala community. So as a respect or due to fear to the international they move very slowly as they do not want the South to feel these things are actually happening. The Government is afraid and do not have the guts to face the challenges from Mahinda Rajapaksa and his group including Buddhist monks in the South against these recommendations. The opposition comes from both sides. From South the opposition come against these acts saying that these will harm the war heroes and will lead them to the guillotine. From North they say these acts are not strong enough to fulfil their needs on disappearances. Though the resistance come from both sides yet they are on based on different ideologies. So Government is caught between these including the UNHRC. The other problem is that we do not have a strong national movement to campaign on these. Generally when a government is in power the opposition generally take up these issues into their hands. But here Opposition oppose these and only the government is paying some interest in implementing these which does not give much popularity in South. ICJ 57 77 National Archives Act No 48 of 1973, Section 11. A/HRC/42/40/Add.1 The Chairperson of the OMP stated that cases of the Presidential Commission on Missing persons and other commissions of inquiry in the past have been transferred to the Office of Missing Persons.