WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES HOLDS SIXTIETH SESSION IN NEW YORK, 24-27 APRIL

Press Release
HR/4468
PI/1239

WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES HOLDS SIXTIETH SESSION IN NEW YORK, 24-27 APRIL

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will meet at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 24 to 27 April.

The commitment of the United Nations to the protection and promotion of human rights prompted it to devote particular attention to the widespread practice of enforced or involuntary disappearance in various regions. The practice transgresses a wide range of rights enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other major instruments. Attention was first devoted to the issue in 1979, when the General Assembly asked the Commission on Human Rights to consider the question of disappearances and make recommendations. The main function of the Working Group, which was established in 1980, is to assist the relatives of disappeared persons in ascertaining their fate and whereabouts and to act as a channel of communication between the families and the governments concerned.

There are now more than 49,070 cases of disappearance in the Working Group’s books, of which 46,054 cases are cases being kept under active consideration, as they have not yet been clarified. Countries with the highest number of outstanding cases since 1980 are: Iraq (16,384 outstanding cases); Sri Lanka (12,113); Argentina (3,375); Guatemala (2,982); Peru (2,368); and El Salvador (2,270). The number of countries with outstanding cases of enforced or involuntary disappearance was 69 in 1999.

During 1999, the Working Group received 300 new cases of alleged disappearance in 23 countries, 115 of which allegedly occurred during that period. The highest number of cases in 1999 occurred in Indonesia (50) and Colombia (27).

The Working Group meets three times a year; twice in Geneva and once in New York. Cases are submitted to it by representatives of human rights organizations, associations of relatives of missing persons, and families or witnesses directly concerned with reports of enforced or involuntary disappearances. The Working Group retains cases in its files as long as the exact whereabouts of the missing persons have not been determined. It maintains that the State’s responsibility for disappearances continues to exist irrespective of changes of government.

The Working Group also monitors the compliance of States with their obligations under the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Adopted by the General Assembly on 18 December 1992, that Declaration affirmed that any act of enforced disappearance was an offense to

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human dignity. It also laid down guidelines for all States and strongly encouraged them “to take effective legislative, administrative and judicial measures to prevent and terminate acts of enforced disappearance” in territories under their jurisdiction. To that end, States are obliged to make such acts offences under criminal law to establish civil liability.

The Working Group has established an urgent action procedure authorizing its Chairman to process cases that allegedly occurred in the three months prior to the date when they were reported to the Group. During 1999, the Group sent urgent action appeals to governments concerning 125 cases.

The Working Group is also concerned with the protection of relatives of missing persons, their legal counsel, witnesses to disappearances or their families, members of organizations of relatives and other non-governmental organizations or individuals concerned with disappearances.

The Group is headed by Ivan Tosevski (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) as Chairman-Rapporteur, and is composed by Messrs. Agha Hilaly (Pakistan), Jonas K.D. Foli (Ghana), Diego Garcia-Sayan (Peru) and Manfred Nowak (Austria).

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