Sri Lanka - Personal Documents

On 18 May 2009 the Sri Lankan Government formally announced its military victory over the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and its regaining of complete territorial control over Sri Lanka. More than 300,000 people were displaced, mostly concentrated in the North-Central Vavuniya District, where new Internally Displaced Camps had been established.
As part of its Equal Access to Justice Project, UNDP is supporting the Government of Sri Lanka to provide basic legal documentation to internally displaced populations. For example, many refugees lack identification cards, which not only facilitate movement between camps but also contribute to family reunification. In the district of Batticaloa, however, beneficiaries have faced more than the usual challenges.
This district was severely affected by the conflict as well as the tsunami so there were a number of displacements, said V. T. Yogarajah, head of UNDPs office in Batticaloa. Most of the families affected by the conflict and the tsunami lost all their documents, including birth certificates, identity cards, marriage certificates and other daily documents.
Implemented under the leadership of the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration, the first phase of the A2J project ran from 2004 to 2008. March 2009 saw the beginning of Phase II. Its principal partners from the Government of Sri Lanka are the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs and National Integration and the Ministry of Justice and Law Reform. For several years now mobile documentation clinics have been dispatched to communities that have been heavily affected by conflict and displacement. Since the government offices tasked with issuing these documents are located in town centres, they are difficult and expensive to travel to for many people, especially when the process often requires half a dozen trips to as many different offices. The clinics offer a one-stop solution where people can show up with supporting documentation and, after a day within the clinic, come out with the land deeds, the birth certificates and the other documents crucial to the rehabilitation of their families, lives and livelihoods.
Perhaps as importantly, UNDP is working with local government offices to help streamline this process so that once the mobile clinics close up and move on, people will still have access to a process that works both for them and with them.

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