COMMITTEE ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES OPENS ITS TWELFTH SESSION IN GENEVA

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances this morning opened its twelfth session at the Palais Wilson in Geneva, hearing an address by Simon Walker, Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section of the Human Rights Treaties Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Mr. Walker, in his opening remarks, stressed that the end of 2016 had been marked by the evaluation of the functioning of the Committee by the First Conference of States Parties. He said that the outcome was very positive and outlined that, during the conference, 51 States parties had been present and 22 had taken the floor, praising the Committee for its efficiency and offering constructive criticism.

Mr. Santiago Corcuera Cabezut, Committee Chairperson, noted with satisfaction that the quality of the activities of the Committee had been recognized during the last Conference of States parties at the end of 2016 and the General Assembly held in February 2017, which had marked the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention. Five new members of the Committee would be designated at the end of June 2017. Mr. Corcuera Cabezut recalled that, to date, only five candidates had submitted their applications for vacant seats.

Emmanuel Décaux, member of the Committee and the previous Committee Chairperson, also outlined the need for an increased allocation of resources for the Committee to ensure efficiency in its work. He recalled the strategic role played by the experts who acted as real “ambassadors” for the Convention.

The Committee then adopted its agenda and held a minute of silence in remembrance of victims of enforced disappearances.

The Committee will next meet in public today at 3 p.m. to begin its consideration of the report of Cuba (CED/C/CUB/1).

Opening Address

SIMON WALKER, Chief of the Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Section, Human Rights Treaties Branch at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, outlined that there had been important developments concerning the Convention and the Committee. He stressed that the end of 2016 had been marked by the evaluation by the First Conference of States parties of the functioning of the Committee and that the outcome was very positive, confirming the role of the Committee as the monitoring body of the Convention. 51 States parties had been present and 22 had taken the floor together with representatives of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions and civil society organisations.

Mr. Walker said that the commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the Convention had continued this year with a high level plenary meeting of the General Assembly on 17 February. He noted that if the practice of enforced disappearance was not decreasing, it was morphing. In the context of migration, internal conflict, transnational organized crime, alarming patterns of enforced disappearances were emerging. In that context, the High Commissioner for Human Rights had intervened through a video message during the General Assembly on 17 of February, calling on all States to recognise the value of the Convention. At the end of his message, he set the goal to double the number of ratifications of the Convention in the next five years.

Mr. Walker further noted with satisfaction that since the last session, four States, namely the Central African Republic, Switzerland, Seychelles and the Czech Republic, had ratified the Convention, bringing the number of States parties to 56. He stressed that the Office of the High Commissioner would support the campaign to accelerate that trend in the future. He informed that the Secretary-General had issued his first biennial report on the status of the treaty body system which showed that the measures taken in resolution 68/268 had allowed the treaty body system to address some pressing challenges. On the basis of that report the General Assembly would decide whether or not to grant the necessary resources for the amended meeting time in 2018-2019. Since the Committee was facing an ever-growing number of requests for urgent actions, the Secretary-General had stressed that the staffing resources provided for urgent actions had proven insufficient to support the Committee work in that area.

Statements

SANTIAGO CORCUERA CABEZUT, Chairperson of the Committee, stressed that this session was symbolic for different reasons. It was the first session since the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the Convention, which had been an excellent opportunity to launch an appeal to the States that had not ratified the Convention yet.

He announced that next June, an assembly of States parties would be held, at which five new members of the Committee would be designated. To date, only six candidates had submitted an application for a total of five vacant seats. Mr. Corcuera Cabezut invited the States to nominate new candidates of high moral qualities. He then recalled that, despite the crucial need of the Committee to consolidate its work, it was currently facing a backlog due to the insufficient material and human resources allocated to it. That, he stressed, impeded the Experts from considering the reports efficiently. He noted that that was also partly caused by the recent increase in the number of States parties to the Convention.

EMMANUEL DÉCAUX, member of the Committee and the previous Committee Chairperson, said that the tenth anniversary of the entry into force of the Convention had provided an important opportunity to raise awareness on the issue of enforced disappearances and to call for more ratifications by States.

He outlined that the Committee would be now facing the new challenge to reach ten ratifications per year instead of five or six. He took stock of the new goal set by the High Commissioner for Human Rights aiming at doubling the number of ratifications of the Convention in the next five years and outlined the need for an increase in the resources allocated to the Committee in order to achieve that objective. He noted that the opening of the General Assembly next September would be a good opportunity to raise awareness with the aim to remove obstacles impeding States to ratify the Convention. Mr. Décaux also pointed to the need to reach cross mobilisation by developing a dialogue with civil society organisations and NGOs. Finally, he noted that resolution 68/268 gave crucial importance to the role of experts of the Committee who have acted as real “ambassadors” for the promotion of the Convention. He expressed his hope that Committee experts would continue to play that role with the aim to achieve universality.

The Committee then adopted its agenda and held a minute of silence in remembrance of victims of enforced disappearances.



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CED17/002E