Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

Latest

Report of the Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances
(Advance Edited Version)

UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances concludes eighty-third session - 3 December 2007

UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances holds 83rd session

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances concluded its 82nd session

Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances adopts general
comment on the definition of enforced disappearance

Public Statement by the Chairman of the WGEID on the opening for signature on the Convention on Enforced Disappearance

Press releases

UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES HOLDS SECOND ANNUAL SESSION
26 June 2006

COUNCIL CONCLUDES DISCUSSION ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES, TAKES UP THEMATIC ISSUES
22 March 2007

WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES CONCLUDES EIGHTY-FIRST SESSION
22 March 2007

HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL DISCUSSES REPORT PRESENTED BY WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES
21 March 2007

WORKING GROUP ON DISAPPEARANCES OPENS FIRST OF THREE SESSIONS FOR 2007
15 March 2007

 

Introduction

The Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) was established in 1980 by Commission on Human Rights resolution 20 (XXXVI) and its mandate was extended for 3 years in 2004 by Commission on Human Rights resolution 2004/40. The WGEID’s mandate is to assist families in determining the fate and whereabouts of their relatives who, having disappeared, are placed outside the protection of the law. The WGEID endeavours to establish a channel of communication between the families and the Governments concerned, to ensure that individual cases which families have brought to the Group’s attention are investigated with the objective of clarifying the whereabouts of disappeared persons. Clarification occurs when the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person is clearly established, irrespective of whether the person is alive or dead. The WGEID continues working on cases of disappearance until such time as they are clarified. The WGEID is made up of five independent experts.

For more information on the WGEID’s methods of work click here

As defined in the preamble of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance, adopted by the General Assembly in its resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992, enforced disappearances occur when persons are arrested, detained or abducted against their will or otherwise deprived of their liberty by officials of different branches or levels of Government or by organized groups or private individuals acting on behalf of, or with the support, direct or indirect, consent or acquiescence of the Government, followed by a refusal to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the persons concerned or a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons outside the protection of the law. Enforced disappearance when “committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, with knowledge of the attack” has been defined as a crime against humanity in article 7 (1) (i) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

At the 58 th Session of the Human Rights Commission, in 2002, it was decided to create an intersessional open-ended working group to elaborate a draft legally binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance (ISWG). Read more on the ISWG.

The WGEID holds three sessions during the year. The first three days of the session, the WGEID normally holds individual meetings with interested NGO and Government representatives.

To find out how to report a case of enforced disappearance, click here.

Contact us:
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
CH-1211 Geneva 10
Switzerland
Téléphone: (41-22) 917 9176
Fax: (+41-22) 917 90 06
E-mail: wgeid@ohchr.org