Press briefing of Cabinet Decision taken on 2015-09-16

Amendment to the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, No.19 of 2010

- In terms of the provisions of Births and Deaths Registration Act, No.17 of 1951, the authority to register Deaths has been vested with the Registrar General's Department. However, as the Act does not provide provisions for the registration of Deaths occurred due to unnatural circumstances such as terrorist activities, civil riots or natural disasters and where the dead bodies of persons reported missing cannot be found, the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, No.19 of 2010 was introduced as a solution to that impediment. Nevertheless, at instances where the relatives of a missing person do not accept the death of that missing person due to some reason or other, it is impossible to register such disappearances as deaths under the above Act. It is observed that family members of missing person could not obtain any of their due entitlements in such instances. As such, the proposal made by Hon. Vajira Abeywardena, the Minister of Home Affairs, to amend the Registration of Deaths (Temporary Provisions) Act, No.19 of 2010 to enable to issue a Certificate similar to that of a Certificate of Absence issued by many countries in respect of the missing person / a person suspected to be dead, in line with the internationally accepted practice, was approved by the Cabinet.