COMMITTEE ON ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES CONCLUDES SEVENTH SESSION

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances closed its seventh session this afternoon after adopting its concluding observations and recommendations on the reports of Belgium and Paraguay. It also agreed lists of issues on Armenia, Mexico and Serbia, whose reports it would consider at the next session.

At a public meeting to close the session Committee Rapporteur Alvaro Garcé García Y Santos presented highlights of the session in his report. He recalled that during its two-week session, the Committee, which was responsible for reviewing how States implement the provisions of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, reviewed the reports of Belgium (CED/C/BEL/1) and Paraguay (CED/C/PRY/1). It also adopted the follow-up report on the implementation by Uruguay and France of the Committee’s concluding observations.

Committee Chairperson Emmanuel Decaux, in his concluding statement for the session, said there were many regional crises that demanded the Committee’s attention and emphasized the importance of the United Nations goal of achieving universal ratification of the Convention. During the session Mr. Decaux said the Committee had adopted a document on cooperation with national human rights institutions, implementing existing directives with regard to non-governmental organizations. That document was in the final stage of open consultations, including with the International Coordinating Committee of national human rights institutions to take into account their priorities.

Regarding military justice, Mr. Decaux said the Committee would next session finalize a policy statement on the issue in line with the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearance adopted by the General Assembly in 1992, and the guiding principles on the proper administration of military justice developed by the Sub-Commission on Human Rights in 2006, which echoed the initiative of the Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Gabriela Knaul who had revived the debate on military justice in the Human Rights Council. The statement would clarify the Committee’s interpretation of the Convention regarding the jurisdiction of military courts in cases of grave human rights violations such as enforced disappearances. The key issues were that military courts did not have any guarantees of independence and impartiality to judge human rights violations committed by military personnel, not least due to senses of hierarchy, discipline and military culture. Moreover, military courts could not be competent to hear civilian cases, all the more so when the victims were civilians, explained Mr. Decaux. The doctrine would eradicate any ambiguity in the Convention on the matter and allow the Committee to take a clear and systematic approach in developing its concluding observations and recommendations.

Mr. Decaux also announced that the Committee had established an ad hoc panel of three experts to examine individual communications under Article 31, and had also appointed a new rapporteur for matters relating to retaliations, thus boosting further the work of the rapporteur on urgent appeals and interim measures under Article 30. The Committee had set up a monitoring procedure for concluding observations: a rapporteur, supplemented by a deputy rapporteur if necessary, would present annually at the September session an overall summary of the expected responses by States parties to three priority issues following each constructive dialogue. Mr. Decaux also announced that the Committee had adopted lists of issues on the reports submitted by Armenia, Mexico and Serbia, which would be considered at the next session, noting that lists of issues would be adopted at the next session for Iraq and Montenegro, whose reports would be examined at the Committee’s ninth session.

During the session the Committee also met with the Committee on the Rights of the Child on issues of common interest, and was honoured with the presence of human rights defender Ms. Estela de Carlotto, the founder of non-governmental organization Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo (The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo), who recently found after 34 tireless years of searching her grandson, who disappeared in 1978. The Committee also held its annual meeting with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and met with the Special Rapporteur on the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence. The Committee reviewed communications, information and requests regarding alleged violations of the Convention, and also met with States and civil society on matters related to the implementation of the Convention.

The concluding observations for Belgium and Paraguay will be made available on the Committee’s webpage for this session, where the session report, statements and other documents related to the seventh session can also be found.

The eighth session of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances will be held in Geneva from 2 to 13 February 2015, during which the reports of Armenia, Mexico and Serbia will be considered.


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CED14/008E