Summary

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was established pursuant to resolution 20 (XXXVI) of the Commission on Human Rights. The Working Group’s mandate was most recently extended by the Human Rights Council in its resolution 54/14.

The mandate of the Working Group is to assist families of disappeared persons to ascertain the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared relatives, to assist States and monitor their compliance with their obligations deriving from the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and to provide States with assistance in the prevention and eradication of enforced disappearances.

Since its inception in 1980, the Working Group has transmitted a total of 61,626 cases to 115 States. The number of cases under active consideration that have not yet been clarified, closed or discontinued stands at 48,619 in a total of 100 States. During the reporting period, 199 cases were clarified.

The present report reflects the activities of the Working Group, and the communications and cases examined by it, from 13 May 2023 to 10 May 2024.

The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances expresses its serious concern about its inability, with the present limited financial resources and in the context of the ongoing liquidity crisis affecting the United Nations, to carry out the various tasks assigned to it by the Human Rights Council.