Background

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is scheduled to conduct an official visit of the African Union (AU) judicial and human rights organs and other bodies on the side-lines of the 77th Ordinary Session of the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights. The visit has been agreed and will take place from 21 to 26 October 2023 in Arusha, Tanzania.

Objectives

The visit aims to exchange with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the African Committee of Experts on the Rights and Welfare of the Child, as well as the East African and the Economic Community of West African States – Courts of Justice in a knowledge-sharing exercise to gather information on legislative frameworks and relevant jurisprudence related to enforced disappearances in the African region. The visit also aims to obtain information on the regional context in which enforced disappearances and acts tantamount to enforced disappearances occurred or may occur, such as in the context of migration and transnational transfers. Issues related to the link between enforced disappearances and a number of recent thematic focuses of the Working Group, such as new technologies, elections, as well as land and environmental relates issues, will also be discussed – as well as the impact of enforced disappearances on economic social and cultural rights and the specific consequences on women and children. The visit will also allow for taking stock  of gaps and of good practices, lessons learned, emerging trends and specific features, assessing the specificities to the African continent and exploring potential solutions.

Key questions and type of contributions requested

The Working Group would like to invite all interested individuals and organizations working on issues related to enforced disappearance  and working on the African region, including representatives of civil society associations and relatives of disappeared persons, experts, as well as academics, to send their written contributions on the following questions:

1. Please provide information on past/ongoing initiatives focusing on enforced disappearance in Africa.

2. Please elaborate on possible reasons for the low registration/reporting of cases of enforced disappearances in the region. Please provide information on whether families, human rights defenders, humanitarian workers, prosecution, judges and lawyers or persons in charge of investigations and search face reprisals, threats and harassment for their work and, if so, in which form (and how this could be prevented and mitigated).

3. Could you please share experiences, good practices, lessons learned, emerging trends and specific features and potential solutions, in the context of the below themes and cross-cutting issues:
   • Enforced disappearance in the context of migration;
   • Enforced disappearance and women and children (covering also the issue of illegal intercountry adoptions and its intersections with enforced disappearance);
   • Enforced disappearance and economic, social and cultural rights;
   • Acts tantamount to enforced disappearances perpetrated by non-State actors exercising de facto control over a territory or population;
   • Enforced disappearance in the context of transnational transfers;
   • So called short-term enforced disappearances;
   • New technologies and enforced disappearances;
   • Enforced disappearances and elections;
   • Enforced disappearances and land and environmental related issues;
   • Good practices and lessons learned in the investigation of enforced disappearance and in the search for disappeared persons;
   • Enforced disappearance in transitional justice contexts;
   • Other issues that you deem relevant for the African regional context.

Confidentiality

The identity of sources submitting contributions to the Working Group is considered strictly confidential, unless consent to public disclosure is expressly indicated.

The call for contributions is also available in Portuguese.