COMMITTEE ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES OPENS TENTH SESSION
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances this morning opened its tenth session, hearing a statement by Simon Walker, Chief of Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section of the Human Rights Treaties Division at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, and adopting the agenda of the session.
In his address, Mr. Walker noted that 2016 was marking the tenth anniversary of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and the fiftieth anniversary of the two original human rights Covenants, which were the basis of the United Nations human rights treaty system. The adoption of the Convention had been the result of a long journey and a bitter struggle on which the families of the disappeared persons had embarked almost forty years earlier. The Convention recognized the suffering of thousands of persons from all over the world and developed the international human rights law to ensure that enforced disappearances constituted an offence under domestic law and a crime against humanity. The treaty codified that no one should be subjected to enforced disappearances and affirmed the rights of victims.
Mr Walker stated that the contemporary value of the Convention was to be discussed on 11 March, at a roundtable which would be opened by the Director of the Human Rights Treaty Division, Ibrahim Salama. Moreover, the General Assembly had decided to devote to the same subject one high-level plenary meeting during its seventy-first session this autumn. Mr. Walker informed that on 8 October 2015 Italy had ratified the Convention, thus bringing the number of States Parties to 51.
Emmanuel Décaux, Chairman of the Committee, noted that during this session, the Committee would discuss the reports of Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Kazakhstan and later the lists of issues for Columbia and Bosnia Herzegovina, whose reports would be reviewed during the eleventh session. The reports of Cuba, Senegal, Ecuador, Gabon, Albania and Lithuania were also to be considered in the coming period. Mr. Décaux appealed to all States Parties to respect their obligations under the Convention, and reminded that in addition to twenty-four State Parties that had submitted their reports, seven other countries had yet to do so: Honduras, Bolivia, Chile, Brazil, Mali, Nigeria, and Japan. The delay in submitting reports was affecting the planning of the Committee’s future sessions as well as violating provisions of the Convention. Mr. Décaux also shared his concerns on the scarce resources of the Committee, reminding that resources were also needed for raising awareness of the Committee’s work.
The Chairperson stressed the importance of the General Assembly’s high-level plenary session that was to take place later this year. Seeing how the civil society actors took risks in the field and submitted complaints to the authorities, Mr. Décaux emphasized the need for additional capacity building and technical assistance in order to help civil society organisations do their job and strive the best they could. Mr. Décaux expressed appreciation for the Committee’s two main partners in the system – President of the Human Rights Committee, Mr. Salvioli and President-Rapporteur of the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, Ms. Es-Slami, with whom the Committee was developing ever-stronger ties.
The Committee then adopted its agenda and held a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of enforced disappearances.
The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. this afternoon to start its consideration of the initial report of Tunisia (CED/C/TUN/1).
For use of the information media; not an official record
CED16/002E