WORKING GROUP ON DISAPPEARANCES TO MEET FOR THE FIRST TIME IN ASIA

20 May 2005


The Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights will hold its seventy-fifth session from 26 May to 3 June in Bangkok, Thailand. This first-ever meeting of the Working Group in Asia comes in recognition of the increasing number of cases of disappearances received from across the region.

The Working Group will examine newly submitted cases of persons who have been reportedly forcibly disappeared by government officials or their agents, as well as recently submitted information on previously accepted cases from around the world. The Working Group will also meet with representatives of governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to discuss cooperation and cases under consideration.

The session will be held at the headquarters of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, which will make the Working Group more accessible to governments and NGO representatives from Asia. Previous sessions have been held in New York and Geneva, while two sessions have taken place in Latin America.

The Working Group is made up of five independent experts from all regions of the world. The Chairman-Rapporteur is Professor Stephen J. Toope, the Vice-Chairman is Professor J. Bayo Adekanye, and the other Expert-Members are Darko Gottlicher, Professor Saied Rajaie Khorasani and Professor Santiago Corcuera.

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For use of the information media; not an official record