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Disclaimer / Limitations
This country’s legal measures were reviewed by our legal staff in consultation with in-country lawyers and/or CRVS legal experts. All efforts were made to ensure the accuracy of the legal analysis, however, if you consider there to be any discrepancies or if there have been changes in the law of the country since our staff last updated the legal analysis, we welcome any additional information or insights. Please contact us via this form.
Death Registration
Sri Lanka
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Sri Lanka
Death Registration
Universal Registration
Universal Registration
Universal and compulsory application
Is death registration available and compulsory for all events occurring in the country's jurisdiction?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
To increase death registration rates, the law should provide that registration is available and compulsory to all deaths occuring in every geographical area and for every population group in the country, without discrimination. Examples of possible discriminations are: sex; race ethnicity, religion or population group; marital status; nationality, citizenship, residency or regugee/asylum status; or any other characteristic such as prisoners or persons with disabilities
Is registration of death available to citizens living abroad?
Yes
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
The death of a national who is abroad should be reported and registered in the country where the death occurred either by the next of kin or other person with knowledge of death. The death should also be reported to the embassy or consulate of the home country of the deceased.
Yes, Section 7(2) of the Consular Functions Act extends the application of the Birth and Death Registration Act to every death of a citizen that dies abroad. The section says, "Every diplomatic or consular officer shall be deemed to be an Additional District Registrar for any district in Sri Lanka within the meaning of the Birth and Deaths Registration Act...and accordingly such diplomatic or consular officer may register the birth or death of a citizen of Sri Lanka occurring in the foreign country to which he is appointed or accredited, as though such registration were made in Sri Lanka."
Does the law provide a clear definition of death? If yes, does the definition accord with international guidelines?
No death is not defined by law
Recommended Practice based on International Guidelines
The provision of clear definitions in the law is an important tool to ensure the continuous and permanent recording of vital events in all areas. The UN's definition of death is: "The permanent disappearance of all evidence of life at any time after live birth has taken place (post-natal cessation of vital functions without capability of resuscitation)."
Though the BDRA does not define death, it defines "stillbirth" and the definition of death may be interpreted from the definition of stillbirths in Section 70, BDRA: “Death prior to complete expulsion or extraction from its mother of a product of conception which has had a duration of not less than twenty-eight weeks of gestation, death being indicated by the fact that after such separation, the fetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life such as beating of the heart, pulsation of the umbilical cord or definite movement of voluntary muscles.”
