Committee on Enforced Disappearances holds tenth session from 7 to 18 March 2016

Committee on Enforced Disappearances 
BACKGROUND RELEASE

3 March 2016

Committee to Consider Reports of Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Kazakhstan

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances will review how Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Kazakhstan implement the provisions of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance during its tenth session from 7 to 18 March in Room VII of the Palais des Nations in Geneva.

At the opening of the session on Monday, 7 March, the Committee will meet in public at 10 a.m. to hear a statement from a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.  It will then adopt its agenda for the session, and hold a minute of silence in remembrance of victims of enforced disappearances.

The Committee will consider the report of Tunisia (CED/C/TUN/1) on Monday, 7 March at 3 p.m. and on Tuesday, 8 March at 10 a.m.  The report of Burkina Faso (CED/C/BFA/1) will be considered by the Committee on Tuesday, 8 March at 3 p.m. and on Wednesday, 9 March at 10 a.m.  On Wednesday, 9 March at 3 p.m. and on Thursday, 10 March at 10 a.m., the Committee will examine the report of Kazakhstan (CED/C/KAZ/1).

On Friday, 11 March, the Committee will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the adoption by the General Assembly of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance with a panel discussion entitled “The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance: contemporary challenges”.

Also during the session, the Committee will review communications, requests for urgent actions and information regarding alleged violations of the Convention.  It will examine and adopt lists of issues on the reports submitted by Colombia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which will be considered in future sessions.

The Committee will also meet with relevant United Nations bodies, specialized agencies, national human rights institutions and non-governmental organizations on matters related to the implementation of the Convention.  It will discuss its methods of work, including a possible general comment.

Further information on the Committee and its tenth session can be found here.  The Committee will also publish its findings, known as concluding observations, here on Friday 18 March.

Background

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances is the monitory body which oversees the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which entered into force on 23 December 2010.  To date, 51 States have ratified or acceded to the Convention: Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Gabon, Germany, Greece, Honduras, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico,  Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands,  Niger, Nigeria, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Samoa, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Spain, Togo, Tunisia, Ukraine, Uruguay and Zambia.

The Convention 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.  The Convention contains a universally agreed definition of enforced disappearance as “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”.

The main goals of the Convention are to hold States responsible for the protection of persons from enforced disappearances by defeating impunity, to prevent new cases of enforced disappearances and to guarantee the right to the truth and to obtain reparation of both the disappeared and their families.

Committee Experts

The members of the Committee are: Mohammed Al-Obaidi (Iraq), Santiago Corcuera Cabezut (Mexico), Emmanuel Decaux (France), Maria Clara Galvis Patino (Colombia),  Daniel Figallo Rivadeneyra (Peru), Luciano Hazan (Argentina), Rainer Huhle (Germany), Suela Janina (Albania), Juan José Lopez Ortega (Spain), and Kimio Yakushiji (Japan).

Programme of Work

Monday, 7 March

10 a.m.       Public opening of session, statement by representative of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, adoption of the agenda, minute of silence in remembrance of victims of enforced disappearances.

3 p.m.          Consideration of the report of Tunisia CED/C/TUN/1

Tuesday, 8 March

10 a.m.         Tunisia (continued)

3 p.m.           Consideration of the report of Burkina Faso CED/C/BFA/1

Wednesday, 9 March

10 a.m.         Burkina Faso (continued)

3 p.m.           Consideration of the report of Kazakhstan CED/C/KAZ/1

Thursday, 10 March

10 a.m.         Kazakhstan (continued)

3 p.m.           Closed meeting

Friday, 11 March

10 a.m.         Closed meeting
3 p.m.           Commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance - “Contemporary challenges”

Monday, 14 March

10 a.m.         Closed meeting

3 p.m.          Closed meeting

Tuesday, 15 March

10 a.m.         Closed meeting

3 p.m.           Closed meeting

Wednesday, 16 March

10 a.m.         Closed meeting

3 p.m.           Closed meeting

Thursday, 17 March

10 a.m.         Closed meeting

3 p.m.           Closed meeting

Friday, 18 March

10 a.m.         Closed meeting

3 p.m.          Presentation by the Rapporteur of the informal report of tenth session
3:15 p.m.    Presentation by the Rapporteur of the annual report of the Committee to the seventy-first session of the General Assembly
4 p.m.         Presentation by the Rapporteur of the programme of work of the eleventh session
5 p.m.         Statement by the Chairperson, Closing of the session

For more information and media requests, please contact Liz Throssell - +41 (0) 22 917 9466 / +41 79 752 0488 / ethrossell@ohchr.org


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To find out more about the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, please visit:
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