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What is Enforced Disappearance?
What does the United Nations (UN) do about Enforced
Disappearances?
What is the 1992 UN Declaration for the Protection of
All Persons from Enforced Disappearance?
What is the UN Convention for the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced Disappearance?
What does the Convention mainly state about the issue
of enforced disappearance
Why is there a need for a Convention?
What will be the functions of the Committee on
Enforced Disappearances which is to be established by
the Convention?
What is the Convention’s Importance to the Peoples of
Asia?
Why is it important for States to ratify the
Convention
and to ensure its immediate entry into force?
What is the practical importance of the Convention for
the victims and their families?
How can we lobby governments to recognize the
importance of the instrument by signing and ratifying
the Convention?
What is the International Coalition Against Enforced
Disappearance (ICAED)?
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INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF ALL
PERSONS FROM
ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE
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Respect the Right NOT to be DISAPPEARED!
A Primer on the United Nations Convention for the
Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
What is Enforced Disappearance?
Based on the definition provided for by the International Convention for
the Protection of All Persons From Enforced Disappearance (2006), enforced
disappearance is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any
other form of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the State or
by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or
acquiescence of the State, followed by the refusal to acknowledge the
deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the
disappeared person, which places such a person outside the protection of
the law.
There are three constitutive elements in enforced disappearances: (1)
deprivation of liberty in any form, (2) State responsibility or, at least,
complicity, and (3) refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or
concealment of all information on the victim. As a consequence, the victim
of an enforced disappearance is placed outside the protection of the law
and this determines the suspension of the enjoyment of all other human
rights and freedoms of the disappeared person, who is left in a situation
of complete defenselessness.
The Convention establishes that, if non-State actors
perpetrate acts of the nature of enforced disappearance, States are under
an obligation to investigate such crimes and to bring those responsible to
justice (Article 3).
This practice was first used by the Nazi in 1941 in the “occupied
territories” especially in the extermination of the Jews. It was
subsequently employed by the military and dictatorial regimes in Asia and
Latin America and later even by formally democratic regimes. At present,
Asia is the continent with the highest number of enforced disappearances
reported to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances (UNWGEID). Many cases of enforced disappearance in Europe
and Africa have also been reported.
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