Default title

HR/99/107
24 November 1999


WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES TO HOLD FIFTY-NINTH SESSION IN GENEVA
FROM 24 NOVEMBER TO 3 DECEMBER


The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will meet at the Palais des Nations in Geneva from 24 November to 3 December 1999.

There are now more than 45,825 cases under active consideration by the Working Group, some involving individuals who have been missing for more than 20 years. Countries with the highest number of outstanding cases since 1980 are: Iraq (16,384), Sri Lanka (12,143), Argentina (3,375), Guatemala (2,990), Peru (2,368), and El Salvador (2,270). More than 2,926 cases have been clarified by the Group since its conception.

During 1997 and 1998, most of the alleged cases of disappearances reported to the Working Group occurred in Algeria, Colombia, Eritrea, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Uganda. For the year 1998 alone, the Group received some 1,015 cases of disappearance in 31 countries and clarified 128 cases.

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 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 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 disappearances 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 for communication between the families and the governments concerned. It 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 offence to 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 and 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 1998, the Group sent urgent actions appeals to governments concerning 209 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.