Forced cremation put to rest after 331 days!

Amending the laws issued regarding cremation, the Minister of Health issued a gazette notification yesterday (25) approving the burial of deceased due to Covid 19, reversing the 331-day-long mandate that corpses infected with corona should be cremated.

From now on, the bodies of people who die of corona infection can either be cremated or buried.

It is mentioned in the gazette that the body of the deceased should be buried under the supervision of the authority of the cemetery or the place approved by the competent authority in accordance with the orders issued by the Director General of Health Services.

According to previous guidelines, the bodies of all people who died of corona infection had to be cremated.

Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health on March 30, 2020, state that it is possible to cremate or bury the bodies of people who die of corona infection. But in less than 24 hours later, the decision was revoked and the guidelines were amended, stating that all those who died of the virus should be cremated.

Many local and international organizations and activists, as well as foreign countries, have called on the Sri Lankan government to change its policy of compulsory cremation in Sri Lanka and to grant the ‘burial rights’ minorities, and Sri Lanka was strongly pressed in the ongoing 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, regarding mandated cremation.