Staff Reporter :
The government has enacted the Enforced Disappearance Prevention and Remedies Ordinance, 2025, which includes provisions for capital punishment and life imprisonment for individuals found responsible for enforced disappearances.
The Legislative and Parliamentary Affairs Division of the Law Ministry published the gazette notification late Monday night, following the Council of Advisers’ approval of the draft on 6 November.
Under the ordinance, special tribunals will be established at both district and divisional levels to oversee cases related to preventing and prosecuting enforced disappearances.
The offences defined in the ordinance are non-bailable and cannot be settled out of court.
According to the provisions, if a disappeared person is confirmed dead or remains untraced-alive or deceased-for five years, the perpetrator may face the death penalty or life imprisonment.
The law further states that any public employee or law enforcement officer who arrests, detains, abducts, or otherwise deprives an individual of liberty and then denies or conceals the person’s fate or location-effectively placing them outside legal protection-may be sentenced to life imprisonment or up to ten years in jail.
Destroying evidence, creating or operating secret detention facilities, or using such locations for enforced disappearances may result in imprisonment of up to seven years.
The ordinance also outlines accountability for senior officials and commanders of law enforcement bodies.
If a superior officer orders, endorses, approves, or encourages such crimes, or takes part in them directly, they will receive the same penalty as the primary offender.
Superiors can also be punished if their negligence, incompetence, or failure to enforce discipline allows subordinates to carry out an enforced disappearance.
Additionally, the ordinance permits authorities to keep the location of an arrested individual undisclosed “for reasons of state security” until they are brought before a magistrate.
It also allows tribunals to conduct trials in absentia if the accused has absconded.
