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contents:
cover
What is Enforced Disappearance?
What does the United Nations do about Enforced Disappearances?
What is the United Nations 1992 Declaration for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance?
What is the United Nations Convention For the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance?
From AFAD’s initial assessment, the following are some factors which contributed to the successful adoption/approval of the Convention in September 2005:
What does the recently approved Convention mainly state about the issue of disappearance?
Why is there a need for a Convention?
What will the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, to be established by the Convention, do?
What is the Convention’s importance to the Peoples of Asia?
Why is the ratification and entry into force of the Convention important?
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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Primer on the United Nations Convention
for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
Third Edition
(Prepared by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances)
What will the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, to be established by the Convention, do?
One of the most important achievements of the new Convention will be the establishment of a new ten-member Committee on Enforced Disappearances. Once the Convention enters into force, the Committee will be set up and will carry out the following tasks:
a) Receive, consider and issue comments, observations and recommendations on
State reports on the measures taken to give effect to obligations established under the Convention within two years after its entry into force.
b) Request a State Party to provide the Committee with information on the situation of a person reported disappeared (relatives of a disappeared may submit to the Committee requests to search for their loved one) within a time limit set by the Committee itself. In the light of the response provided for by the State Party concerned, the Committee shall transmit a recommendation to the respective State and inform the person who filed the request regarding the process. The Committee may also
request the State to take appropriate actions, including interim measures and to report it to its members. Finally, the Committee shall continue its efforts to work with the State concerned as long as the fate of the disappeared person remains unresolved.
c) Request one or more of the members of the Committee, (if it is considered that a
visit to the territory of a State Party is necessary to discharge the mandate) to undertake, upon the agreement of the State concerned, a visit and report back its findings to the Committee without delay.
d) Receive and consider communications from or on behalf of individuals subject to its jurisdiction who claim to be victims of a violation of the provisions of the Convention. In this view, a State Party may at the time of ratification or at any time afterwards, declare that it recognizes such a competence.
(IMPORTANT: If a State does not accept this competence, the Committee may not receive any individual communication).
e) Upon declaration of recognition of competence by the State Parties concerned, it shall receive and consider communications to the effect that a
State Party claims that another State Party is not fulfilling its obligations under the Convention.
f) Urgently bring a matter (when it receives information which appears to contain well-founded indications that enforced disappearance is being practised on a widespread or systematic basis in the territory of a State Party) to the attention of the General Assembly of the United Nations, through the UN Secretary-General.
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