COMMITTEE ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES HOLDS MEETINGS WITH STATES PARTIES AND CIVIL SOCIETY

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances this afternoon held three separate meetings with States parties to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, with national human rights institutions, and with non-governmental organizations.

In the meeting with States parties, Emmanuel Decaux, Chairperson of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, said that so far 44 States had ratified the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, and there was hope of more in the near future. State parties to the Convention were obliged to submit initial reports within two years of entry into force of the Convention. The Committee was doing its best to avoid accumulating backlog, but it was also important that States parties respected the rule of regularly submitting reports to enable the Committee to do its work properly.

Argentina, France and Tunisia took the floor, expressing their support for the work of the Committee, discussing issues such as cooperation with other treaty bodies on cross-cutting issues, and generally encouraging other States to ratify the Convention.

In the meeting with civil society representatives, Mr. Decaux said the national human rights institutions should insist on the ratification of the Convention, and consider organizing live webcast screenings in their offices of the Committee’s interactive dialogues with States parties. Regional and local human rights commissions also had an important role to play, he noted.

The International Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights took the floor and praised a paper on the relationship between the Committee and national human rights institutions, which was a document to build upon.

In the meeting with non-governmental organizations, Mr. Decaux said the campaign against enforced disappearances was a long-running battle to which the contribution of the non-governmental organizations was of utmost importance, said Mr. Decaux, not least because they regularly provided the Committee with valuable information which it might not acquire otherwise.

One non-governmental organization, International Federation for Human Rights, spoke at the meeting. The organization said determined efforts were being made by families of victims, civil society and others to ensure that perpetrators were held accountable for their crimes, and encouraged States parties to recognize enforced disappearance as a criminal offence in their national legislation.

The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. on Friday, 13 February to adopt its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Mexico, Armenia and Serbia and close the session.

Meeting with States Parties

EMMANUEL DECAUX, Chairperson of the Committee, recalled that the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was opened for signature eight years ago this month, in February 2007, and entered into force in December 2010. So far 44 States had ratified the Convention and there was hope of more in the near future. Each and every State needed to contribute to the process of ratifications; the General Assembly supported its universal ratification, and encouraged States to accept Articles 30 and 31.

The Committee’s current eighth session, which lasted for two weeks, would mark the end of the first four-year cycle, noted Mr. Decaux. States parties were obliged to submit initial reports within two years of entry into force of the Convention. There was a clear methodology for processing reports, which were posted online once they were submitted to allow for inputs by the civil society. Six months later, a constructive dialogue was held with the State party, which ended with concluding observations. The Committee would not systematically request updated reports if there were no updates available.

Regarding transparency, Mr. Decaux said that a number of constructive dialogues had been filmed and webcast, but due to technical and availability reasons, the practice had been suspended and had exceptionally taken place for the report of Mexico. The Committee was doing its best to avoid accumulating backlog, he said, but it was also important that States parties respected the rule to regularly submit reports to enable the Committee to carry out its work properly. The Committee was working closely with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, a number of Special Rapporteurs and representatives of the civil society, he also noted.

Argentina reaffirmed its commitment to the Convention and support of the work of the Committee, whose professionalism it praised. Argentina had recently submitted responses to the concluding recommendations to its initial report. Argentina believed that the quality of the Committee’s work had given more visibility to the issue of enforced disappearances. Argentina would continue working with France on promoting further ratifications of the Convention.

France also commended the Committee and its members for their work, and reassured the Committee of its ongoing support. France encouraged all States to ratify the Convention. It asked how the Committee envisioned future cooperation with other committees on cross-cutting issues.

The Chairperson responded that annual meetings of Committees were taking place in line with the Dublin Process, and were gradually stepped up. The next would take place in San Jose, Costa Rica, said Mr. Decaux, noting that he would take on the Chairpersonship of the San Jose meeting of the ten Committee Chairpersons. Recent meetings had looked at the incorporation of human rights into the Sustainable Development Goals.

Tunisia said it had supported the treaty body strengthening process from the beginning. Tunisia submitted its report a few weeks earlier and looked forward to a highly constructive dialogue with the Committee. Preparing that and other reports had been a major undertaking, it noted.

A Committee Expert urged States parties to accept Article 31 of the Convention as giving citizens the right to file complaints directly with the Committee meant that the State party was really serious about the Convention. It was difficult for the Committee to hold sessions in various regions due to financial constraints, but the idea was certainly attractive.

A Committee Expert noted the Committee was peculiar in that it defined its own methods of work. He said all States parties should circulate information on how important the Convention was, and emphasize that it ought to become universal. The Convention contained many preventive provisions, and even States which had never faced practices of enforced disappearances should become party.

Meeting with National Human Rights Institutions

EMMANUEL DECAUX, Chairperson of the Committee, said that it would be a very good idea for all ten treaty bodies to have the same guidelines for cooperation with National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). It was very important for the Committee to cooperate with the NHRIs.

International Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC) praised the paper on the relationship between the Committee and NHRIs, which was the document to further work on and build upon. The Committee was encouraged to continue to make recommendations in its reports that States parties ensure that their NHRIs were in full compliance with the Paris Principles. The ICC and its regional networks were working to build the capacity of NHRIs, through training, peer support and the exchange of good practices amongst its members. Feedback from the Committee was expected on the best ways NHRIs could engage with the Committee and support its work. Treaty bodies were encouraged to collectively and unequivocally condemn reprisals and acts of intimidation against those cooperating the international human rights system.

Mr. Decaux said that the NHRIs should also insist on the ratifications of the Convention. NHRIs should also consider organizing live webcast screenings in their offices of the Committee’s interactive dialogues with States parties. Regional and local commissions also had a role to play in States. Sometimes NHRIs with “B” status worked in more difficult conditions than those with status “A”, which had to be taken into consideration.

A Committee Expert stated that different human rights institutions at various levels ought to be evaluated even if they were not given “A” status. In some institutions, it might be useful to have a Government representatives sitting there, but when they had a quasi-judicial role, the presence of the Government could jeopardize the process. Sometimes institutions were not independent even though they claimed that they were.

International Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights expressed gratitude for the Committee’s support and looked forward to contributing to the process on addressing reprisals. ICC members realized that it was important to consider ways of establishing relations with various related institutions at domestic levels. The NHRI in France was a good example in that sense. It was often difficult to accredit some of those institutions as they would sometimes be either local or have very limited, specific mandates, and that was something to consider.

Meeting with Non-Governmental Organizations

International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) stated that Iraq had ratified the Convention in November 2010, being the twentieth State to do so. The entry into force of the Convention had been truly historic, giving victims the right of access to truth, remedies and guarantees of non-repetition. Determined efforts were being made by families of victims, civil society and others to ensure that perpetrators were held accountable for their crimes. States parties were encouraged to recognize enforced disappearance as a criminal offence in their national legislations, and non-States parties were asked to ratify the Convention without much delay.

EMMANUEL DECAUX, Chairperson of the Committee, said that the campaign against enforced disappearances was a long-running battle to which the contribution of non-governmental organizations was of utmost importance. The value of the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances was in bringing together a number of actors, including some major non-governmental organizations. Non-governmental organizations regularly provided the Committee with valuable information, sometimes of confidential nature, in which case they were not uploaded on the Committee’s website. In some cases, especially when it came to wide-spread violations, information from civil society was of paramount importance and could lead to urgent actions.

An Expert encouraged non-governmental organizations to continue contributing to the work of the Committee, providing it with information and attending sessions in Geneva whenever possible.

Another Expert noted that at times the Committee had the impression that non-governmental organizations from certain countries were not involved enough, or that major international non-governmental organizations sometimes neglected particular countries. It would be difficult for Committee members to gather information on their own, he added.


An Expert noted that the Committee had learned a lot over the previous four years and its relationship with non-governmental organizations, including Mexican non-governmental organizations, was much more constructive now.


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CED15/006E