PRESS CONFERENCE ON INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION

OF ALL PERSONS FROM ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE

 

Following its election to the Human Rights Council yesterday, Argentina started campaigning today for ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, Jorge Argüello, the country’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said this morning.

He was speaking at a Headquarters press conference attended by Estela de Carlotto, President and Founder of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo; Gustavo A. Santaolalla, Academy Award-winning composer and human rights advocate; and Ngonlardje Mbaidjol, Director of the New York Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mr. Argüello said most of the disappearances occurring under Argentina’s military dictatorship of 1976 to 1983 had been investigated and members of the former ruling junta were in jail.  That was an example that it was possible to find truth and justice.  Argentina and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had organized a panel on the Convention, starting at 5 p.m. in Conference Room 6 and featuring Rodolfo Ojea Quinatana, Undersecretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship; Ms. Carlotto; Yasmin Louise Sooka, Executive Director of the Foundation for Human Rights of South Africa; Santiago Corcuera Cabezut, Chair of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Human Rights Council; and Mr. Sanaolalla.  Juan Mendez, President of the International Center for Transitional Justice, would moderate.

Mr. Mbaidjol said 57 States had signed the Convention on 6 February 2007, the very day of its opening for signature.  Argentina, Mexico, Honduras and Albania had ratified the Convention and Albania had recognized the competence of the monitoring committee to be established upon the instrument’s entry into force -- which required 60 more ratifications -- to receive individual communications, as well as State communications.  The High Commissioner for Human Rights had called on all Member States to ratify the new Convention and ensure its prompt application.

The Convention affirms the right of any victim to know the truth about the circumstances of an enforced disappearance and the fate of the “disappeared” person.  It states that no one should be subjected to enforced disappearance, that each State party should take appropriate measures to ensure that enforced disappearance constitutes an offence under criminal law, and that widespread or systematic enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity.

Ms. Carlotto said that, during Argentina’s military dictatorship, the junta’s objective had been to murder all opponents.  The country was the only one ever to have kidnapped babies, and those born in concentration camps were removed from their mothers within hours of birth.  The mothers’ fate was death and none of them had returned alive.  She had herself received her assassinated daughter’s body two months after she had given birth.  An estimated 500 babies had disappeared in that way.  Of those, the Abuelas (grandmothers) had found only 89 grandchildren, since it was extremely hard to identify the kidnapped children.

She urged the countries that had signed the Convention to proceed to ratification because disappearances were still happening around the world.  Walking the Plaza de Mayo, the Abuelas had hoped to hear from the United Nations.  To be at Headquarters was to keep the memory of the disappeared alive.

Mr. Santaolalla recalled having grown up always dreaming of a better, fairer and more just world, adding that, whereas he had tried to find expression of that dream in music, other young people around him had committed themselves to making that change happen.  They had paid with their lives and Argentina was still trying to put the pieces back together.  Disappearance was a subject that touched all and a worldwide cause.

Asked whether the Convention applied to victims of human trafficking, Mr. Argüello said it did not, adding that it specifically covered politically motivated disappearances perpetrated by the State or its agents.  The Latin American experience was the reason why, of the four countries that had ratified the Convention, three were in the region, as were the next two expected to do so.

Responding to a question about the Convention’s applicability to extraordinary rendition, Mr. Mbaidjol said it specifically addressed the actions of States, and the question was, therefore, whether such acts were carried out by State agents or criminal elements not acting on behalf of a Government.

In reply to another question, he said his Office represented the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York, promoting human rights in general and providing advice to the various committees and the Secretariat.  It also supported the Secretary-General in mainstreaming human rights concerns into his work.  The New York Office also had a function as advocate for human rights conventions in civil society.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record