HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL ADVISORY COMMITTEE DISCUSSES MISSING PERSONS AND ITS RULES OF PROCEDURE

The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee this afternoon took up the issue of missing persons, after which it continued its consideration of its draft rules of procedure and methods of work.

Wolfgang Stefan Heinz, Advisory Committee Expert, in a statement on the work of the Drafting Group on the study on the best practices in the matter of missing persons, said with regards to activities and what would be the proposal with regards to a draft recommendation over the next few days, the exact topic was that the Drafting Group had been asked to make a study on best practices for missing persons in situations of conflict. He had been working on three small working papers: on missing persons in armed conflict; on a specific country and their decade-long experience of missing persons; and recommendations formulated over the last years by international organizations. The next step would be a draft paper - the Drafting Group suggested the deferring of the discussion on the paper to next January, which would give it time to prepare better for the issue.

Latif Huseynov, Advisory Committee Rapporteur, also on the work of the Drafting Group, said the study should cover all aspects of the problem, starting with prevention – measures to prevent persons from going missing, and ending with the issue of impunity. States should ensure this was done in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law, in order to protect the rights of missing persons and their families. One way States could fulfil their international obligations and protect these rights was to adopt a specific law on missing persons, which could be based on the model law on missing persons, which was prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and existed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The rights of missing persons should include civil status, family members of missing persons, child custody, marital status, pension status, among others.

Speakers then raised issues such as that it was clear that the human rights aspects of the problem of missing persons were not studied well to date. Therefore it was understandable that there were some difficulties faced by the Advisory Committee because of time constraints in preparing the study requested by the Council. While working on the study, the Drafting Group should cooperate closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross and other relevant stakeholders. The legal framework for this theme did already exist under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in the form of protocols and the Geneva Conventions. It was important to draw distinctions between missing persons in general, where they may disappear due to domestic violence, and which did not necessarily need to be placed in the context of armed conflict.

During the discussion on the draft rules of procedure, the Advisory Committee discussed the wording in several articles of the proposed text.

Speaking this afternoon in the discussion on missing persons were Azerbaijan and Argentina.

The next meeting of the Committee will be on Thursday, 6 August at 10 a.m., when it will continue its discussion on wording of the proposed rules of procedure, and take up its agenda and annual programme of work, including new priorities, as well as miscellaneous items.


Missing Persons

WOLFGANG STEFAN HEINZ, Advisory Committee Expert, in a statement on the work of the Drafting Group on the study on the best practices in the matter of missing persons, said with regards to activities and what would be the proposal with regards to a draft recommendation over the next few days, the exact topic that the Drafting Group had been asked to make a study on was best practices for missing persons in situations of conflict. He had been working on three small working papers: on missing persons in armed conflict; on a specific country and their decade-long experience of missing persons; and recommendations formulated over the last years by international organizations. The next step would be a draft paper - there were problems producing this, as the Rapporteur had been very active with regards to rules of procedure, and was finding it difficult to do both. The Drafting Group suggested the deferring of the discussion on the paper to next January, which would give it time to prepare better for the issue. The Drafting Group suggested that it would submit its interim report to the fourteenth meeting of the Human Rights Council in June, as the March meeting had a very long deadline which passed before the Advisory Committee meeting in January.

LATIF HUSEYNOV, Advisory Committee Rapporteur, providing a further update on the work of the Drafting Group on the study on the best practices in the matter of missing persons, thanked Mr. Heinz for presenting comprehensive information on the progress achieved by the Drafting Group so far. With regard to the questionnaire to be sent to States, this was important because they were missing comprehensive information on best practices. Together with this important information, the Drafting Group drew-up a questionnaire to be transmitted to States, and intended to get views from other relevant stakeholders, in particular the International Committee of the Red Cross; the International Commission on Missing Persons, based in Bosnia-Herzegovina; and the Argentine Forensic Team, among others. The study should cover all aspects of the problem, starting with prevention – measures to prevent persons from going missing, and ending with the issue of impunity. States should ensure this was done in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law, in order to protect the rights of missing persons and their families.

One way States could fulfil their international obligations and protect these rights was to adopt a specific law on missing persons, which could be based on the model law on missing persons, which was prepared by the International Committee of the Red Cross, and existed in Bosnia-Herzegovina. The question on what the legal basis was for resolving the issue of missing persons as a result of armed conflict would also be included in the survey. The rights of missing persons should include civil status, family members of missing persons, child custody, marital status, pension status, among others. They required information on practical arrangements and measures taken in countries to track missing persons, such as grave registration services. Setting up such specialized institutions was based in the 1949 Geneva Conventions. They were seeking information on mandates and functions of these specialized institutions. They were also seeking information on the rights of the dead in cases of armed conflict; recovering remains, among other things. Mr. Huseynov stressed that another important issue was on legislation and practices in countries taken to support the families of persons unaccounted for in cases of armed conflict.

HABIB MIKAYILLY (Azerbaijan) said it was clear that the human rights aspects of the problem of missing persons were not studied well to date. Therefore it was understandable that there were some difficulties faced by the Advisory Committee because of time constraints in preparing the study requested by the Council. While working on the study, the Drafting Group should cooperate closely with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other relevant stakeholders. The conclusions and recommendations of the international conference of governmental and non-governmental experts held in 2003 by the ICRC, its model law on missing persons and other texts could be used. The Drafting Group should pay attention to the report of the Secretary-General, submitted to the tenth session of the Human Rights Council, which paid attention to the human rights of families who were entitled to know the fate of their relatives reported missing during armed conflict: It contained useful conclusions. Azerbaijan believed that the study should be result-oriented and should provide clear measures to be taken to ensure the human rights of missing persons and their families more effectively.


SEBASTIAN ROSALES (Argentina) said Argentina referred to the topic of missing persons during the panel on missing persons and in the last report of the Rapporteur. Argentina supported this theme very clearly, and had done so for some time. The legal framework for this theme did already exist under international humanitarian law and international human rights law, in the form of protocols and the Geneva Conventions. It was important to draw distinctions between missing persons in general, where they may disappear due to domestic violence, and which did not necessarily need to be placed in the context of armed conflict; and that of forced disappearances. Forced disappearances had been dealt with quite clearly, with the newly adopted Convention on Forced Disappearances by the General Assembly in 2006. Argentina strongly recommended that existing standards be taken into account. These standards, which were worked on by the Sub-Commission, were very important and valuable, and resulted in the instruments they had today. The other issue was with regard to the right to truth, as the Committee knew, Argentina was one of the main co-sponsors on the right to truth, and had been involved in this since 2005. This right was included in article 32 of the Convention on Humanitarian Law. But there was no clear idea on how the right to truth was dealt with in human rights law. If the study were to take into account this aspect, which was highlighted by the panel, the right to truth had to go beyond the context of armed conflict alone. On the questionnaire, there was a possibility for States to express themselves and make contributions. With regard to the contribution of forensic science, they submitted a draft resolution at the last Human Rights Council session that was closely linked to forensic science and specifically addressed forensic genetics, which aimed to produce a handbook or manual to take into account violations in this nature in the context of international human rights and international humanitarian law.

WOLFGANG STEFAN HEINZ, Advisory Committee Expert, said he wished to thank the two previous speakers. The list of documents to pursue was very helpful, as was the idea of sending out the questionnaire sooner rather than later. It was a key idea that this study on missing persons should not distract from the worrying topic of enforced disappearances, and he had well understood this message and would take it into account. The main focus of the study would be on practical initiatives either by the State or by other actors and not so much on legal norms. He looked forward to being helped by Governments and non-governmental organizations with information on the work.

HALIMA EMBAREK WARZAZI, Advisory Committee Chairperson, asked the representative of Argentina whether with regards to the right to truth, when dealing with this aspect, was this not a duplication of the work of the Working Group on enforced disappearances?

SEBASTIAN ROSALES (Argentina) said the mechanisms of the Council should also be taken into account, such as the Working Group on enforced disappearances. Argentina did not have a position on this, but did want certain milestones and markers in the world, as existed with regards to armed conflict. This could be incorporated as such in the study in order to avoid duplication. The issue went beyond armed conflict - there were problems in many regions of the world, and Argentina wished to ensure that any conclusions made in the study went beyond the situation of armed conflict. There was no problem with regards to the right to truth in armed conflict - but the right to truth went beyond the sole issue of situations in armed conflict.

HALIMA EMBAREK WARZAZI, Advisory Committee Chairperson, said if she raised the issue it was because the Working Group on enforced disappearances also dealt with this issue.

WOLFGANG STEFAN HEINZ, Advisory Committee Expert, said he had been in contact with the Working Group on enforced disappearances, and said their work was to clarify cases of missing persons in a humanitarian context. They did not get involved in cases of armed conflict as that would be duplicating the work of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who were already engaged there. These were certain elements that had to be taken into consideration.


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