Prageeth Ekneligoda honoured with 2023 Engel-Du Tertre Award

Wednesday, 13 December 2023 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Missing journalist and cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda was honoured with the 2023 Engel-Du Tertre Award by the ACAT Foundation for Human Dignity recently.

The award was personally accepted by his wife, human rights activist Sandya Ekneligoda at an event held at the Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris on 7 December.

The ACAT Foundation, a Christian Human Rights NGO said the organisation symbolically awarded her the prize on behalf of her husband and invited her for a week to engage with French authorities and media.

“This presents an opportunity for her to share first-hand accounts of the 60,000 to 100,000 forced disappearances in Sri Lanka, the second most affected country by this crime, and to appeal for support from France,” it said.

“Through this Award, Sandya Eknaligoda advocates for a more robust judicial response in line with the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, to which Sri Lanka has been bound since 2016.

According to this ratified convention, France has the capacity to notify the committee against enforced disappearances, tasked with overseeing its proper implementation. This action could lead to a United Nations investigation into Sri Lanka’s compliance with the convention,” the organisation added.

Ekneligoda was allegedly kidnapped and forcibly disappeared by a group linked to the Sri Lanka Army on 24 January 2010.

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