Committee on Enforced Disappearances
BACKGROUND RELEASE 3 November 2011

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the Committee responsible for reviewing how States implement the provisions of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, will hold its first session from 8 to 11 November 2011 at the Palais Wilson in Geneva.

At the opening of the session, the members of the Committee will make a solemn declaration to perform their duties as members of the Committee independently and impartially. The Committee will then elect its Chairperson, three Vice-Chairpersons and Rapporteur. During its session, the Committee will meet in private to discuss its rules of procedure and methods of work. It will also meet with the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances. The Committee will meet in public at 3 p.m. on Thursday, 10 November when it will meet with States parties, and than with non-governmental organizations.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance entered into force on 23 December 2010. To date, 30 States parties have ratified it. They are: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil,
Burkina Faso, Chile, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Germany, Honduras, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mali, Mexico, Montenegro, Netherlands, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Senegal, Serbia, Spain, Tunisia, Uruguay and Zambia.

The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance states that no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance. For the purposes of this Convention, "enforced disappearance" is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law. Each State Party shall take appropriate measures to investigate acts defined in article 2 committed by persons or groups of persons acting without the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State and to bring those responsible to justice. Each State Party shall take the necessary measures to ensure that enforced disappearance constitutes an offence under its criminal law. It also states that the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearance constitutes a crime against humanity as defined in applicable international law and shall attract the consequences provided for under such applicable international law.

The members of the Committee are Mohammed Al-Obaidi (Iraq), Mamadou Badio Camara (Senegal), Emmanuel Decaux (France), Alvaro Garcé Garcia Y Santos (Uruguay), Luciano Hazan (Argentina), Rainer Huhle (Germany), Suela Janina (Albania), Juan José Lopez Ortega (Spain), Enoch Mulembe (Zambia) and Kimio Yakushiji (Japan).

__________

For use of the information media; not an official record