WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES CONCLUDES SIXTY-NINTH SESSION

25 April 2003




The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights concluded today a week-long session during which it examined allegations concerning over 30 countries.
This sixty-ninth session, which lasted from 22 to 25 April, saw the Working Group meet with representatives of interested governments, non-governmental organizations and families of disappeared persons, and exchange views on individual cases and on the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. During proceedings, the Working Group met with representatives of the Government of Japan and relatives of disappeared Japanese nationals allegedly kidnapped by North Korean agents in Japan, Spain and the United Kingdom between 1977 and 1983. They are allegedly being held in the territory of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
The Working Group reviewed information from governmental and non-governmental sources on enforced or involuntary disappearances in Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the DPRK, Egypt, France, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Indonesia, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, the Palestinian Authority, the Russian Federation, Spain, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thailand, Tunisia, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, the United States, Uzbekistan and Yemen.
The next session of the Working Group is scheduled from 11 to 15 August, 2003. Among other activities, the Working Group will invite the Governments of Algeria, Argentina, El Salvador and Peru to that meeting, as those countries have a large number of unresolved cases and have failed to communicate regularly with the panel. Such unresolved cases numbers over one thousand. Iraq, with 16,384 unresolved cases, was not included in the list due to the current vacuum of power. The Working Group decided at this session to request a legal opinion from the United Nations Office for Legal Affairs on how to proceed in communications to Iraq regarding those cases, and on how to handle any newly reported cases from the country.
At this session, the Working Group also finalized preparations for a visit to Iran set for 11 to 18 June, 2003. Diego Gacía-Sayán, Chairman of the Working Group, and Stephen Toope, expert member of the Working Group, would conduct that mission.



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