UN WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES TO VISIT HONDURAS

31 January 2007



The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will visit Honduras from 31 January to 2 February where it will visit the capital, Tegucigalpa, to discuss cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances.

The panel's members plan to meet in Honduras with, among others, officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and Justice, the Ministry of Security, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the Supreme Court of Justice, the Constitutional Chamber and the National Human Rights Commission.

The Working Group experts also plan to meet with representatives of non-governmental organizations and families of disappeared persons.

This mission will be immediately followed by a mission to El Salvador, which will take place from 5 to 7 February 2007.

The Working Group was established by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in 1980 to assist the relatives of disappeared persons in ascertaining their fate and whereabouts and to act as a channel for communication between the families and governments concerned.

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.

The Working Group has previously conducted missions to Colombia, Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Turkey, and Yemen.

The experts from the Working Group who will conduct the mission are the Chairman-Rapporteur, Santiago Corcuera, and Expert-Member Darko Göttlicher.