Declaration key to progress of international law on enforced disappearance: UN experts
GENEVA (15 December 2022) – All UN member States should ratify and accede to the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as a genuine sign of commitment to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearance, UN experts said today. Ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance on 18 December, the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances issued the following statement:
“30 years after its adoption, the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance remains a fundamental legal instrument. The General Assembly adopted this landmark document on 18 December 1992.
The Declaration is a body of principles for all States that is designed to prohibit enforced disappearances, to prevent their commission and to help victims of such acts and their families to unveil the truth, obtain justice and seek fair, prompt and adequate reparation.
To mark the 30th anniversary, the Working Group presented a stocktaking study on the Declaration to the Human Rights Council during its last session in September 2022.
Our research and analysis, informed by contributions received by a number of stakeholders, shows how the Declaration has significantly contributed to the progress of international law on enforced disappearance, as well as to the development of international practice and domestic legislation and jurisprudence. This most important instrument is regularly quoted in the case law of international and domestic courts.
Today the Declaration largely reflects, codifies and consolidates customary international law that is legally binding on all States. The prohibition of enforced disappearance and the corresponding obligation to investigate and punish perpetrators have attained the status of jus cogens, i.e. a principle of international law that cannot be set aside.
The Declaration has been translated into several languages, in addition to the six UN official ones and included in several countries as dedicated modules in academic curricula, as well as trainings directed at relevant actors, including law enforcement and medical personnel, lawyers, judges and prosecutors, human rights defenders, journalists, and civil society and associations of relatives of disappeared persons.
At the same time, our study shows that a number of obstacles in the implementation of the Declaration remain, and they mostly concern the areas of prevention, domestication of international obligations, the search for disappeared persons and accountability.
The Working Group stands ready to assist States in identifying the said obstacles and overcoming them, including through technical assistance, cooperation and advisory services.
Finally, the progress of international law on enforced disappearance culminated in the adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, whose provisions are based, to a great extent, on those of the Declaration.
As a logical step forward, all member States that have not yet done so, should ratify, or accede to, the International Convention without delay and recognise the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances to receive and examine individual and inter-State complaints.
This would be the best way to mark the 30th anniversary of the Declaration and a genuine sign of commitment to effectively prevent and eradicate enforced disappearance.”
The Working Group’s statement was endorsed by the Committee on Enforced Disappearances.
