Prageeth Ekneligoda honoured with 2023 Engel-Du Tertre Award 

Missing journalist and a well-known Political cartoonist Prageeth Ekneligoda was honoured with the 2023 Engel-Du Tertre Award by the ACAT Foundation for Human Dignity recently. Sandhya, the wife of Prageeth Eknaligoda accepted the award last week.

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

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

“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,” the ACAT Foundation 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 organization added.

Ekneligoda was allegedly kidnapped and forcibly disappeared by a group linked to the Sri Lanka Army on 24 January 2010. From the day Prageeth disappeared, Snadhya actively engaged in searching for her missing husband and the very famous cartoonist Prageeth Eknaligoda.
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