Committee on Enforced Disappearances Opens Twenty-Seventh Session
Hears that Enforced Disappearances Are on the Increase as a Result of National and International Conflicts and Growing Polarisation Within and Between Countries
The Committee on Enforced Disappearances this morning opened its twenty-seventh session, during which it will examine the reports of Morocco, Norway and Ukraine on their implementation of the provisions of the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
Opening the session, Mahamane Cisse-Gouro, Director, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said the Committee’s agenda deserved the world’s full attention at a time when enforced disappearances were on the increase as a result of national and international conflicts, and growing polarisation within and between countries. In times like these, the vital role of human rights mechanisms to protect and promote human rights became even more obvious.
Mr. Cisse-Gouro welcomed that, since the last session, Thailand, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Bangladesh became parties to the Convention, which now had 76 States parties. He expressed hope that the World Congress on Enforced Disappearances, which would be held in Geneva, Switzerland on 15 and 16 January 2025, would contribute to efforts to achieve universal ratification.
He also said he was pleased that, since the beginning of the Committee’s urgent action procedure, 512 urgent actions had been closed following the location of the disappeared person, including 15 since the last session. Out of the 512 located persons, it was particularly heartening that 408 were located alive.
Olivier de Frouville, Committee Chairperson, in his opening statement, said the session was opening in a context that was worrying for the future. Conflicts of all kinds were multiplying and claiming thousands of victims on all continents. In this context, the practice of enforced disappearances, far from receding, was spreading throughout the world.
Mr. de Frouville said there could be no human rights without an effective rights protection system, but the treaty bodies system was dramatically under-resourced. The Committee was therefore pleased by the adoption yesterday of the Pact for the Future by the General Assembly. The Pact instructed the Secretary-General “to assess the need to provide the human rights protection mechanisms of the United Nations system, including the Office of the High Commissioner, with adequate, predictable, increased and sustainable funding to enable them to carry out their mandates efficiently and effectively.”
Mr. de Frouville concluded by expressing solidarity with the victims of enforced disappearances, including the disappeared, their families and loved ones, who, day after day, suffered the torture of not knowing what had become of the victims.
During the meeting, Shui-Meng Ng, the wife of Sombath Somphone, a victim of enforced disappearance in Lao People's Democratic Republic, recounted her husband’s disappearance and her subsequent efforts seeking truth, justice and reparation.
Committee Expert Barbara Lochbihler provided the Committee’s response to Ms. Ng’s statement, thanking her for sharing her story and presenting actions undertaken and planned by the Committee concerning Mr. Somphone’s case and the broader fight against enforced disappearances.
Before closing the meeting, the Committee adopted its agenda for the session.
All the documents relating to the Committee’s work, including reports submitted by States parties, can be found on the session’s webpage. Webcasts of the meetings of the session can be found here, and meetings summaries can be found here.
The Committee will next meet in public at 3 p.m. this afternoon, Monday, 23 September, to consider the initial report of Ukraine (CED/C/UKR/1).
Statements
MAHAMANE CISSE-GOURO, Director, Human Rights Council and Treaty Mechanisms Division, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Representative of the Secretary-General, said the Committee’s agenda was as busy as ever and deserved the world’s full attention at a time when, sadly, enforced disappearances were on the increase as a result of national and international conflicts, and growing polarisation within and between countries.
There were multiple crises affecting the globe today. In times like these, the vital role of human rights mechanisms to protect and promote human rights became even more obvious. They communicated to States their human rights records and recommended ways to rectify what had gone wrong, bring justice to victims, and adopt measures to protect human rights and prevent their violation. Mr. Cisse-Gouro said human rights were regulators and correctors of power dynamics gone awry. International cooperation, grounded in human rights, was the channel all had to effect change and to address the massive challenges of the time.
The work of the treaty bodies, including this Committee, was key to make this a reality. The guidance and recommendations they provided, and the ongoing interaction they had with States, victims, civil society organizations, and national human rights institutions through the different mandated procedures, helped to identify ways to prevent and address human rights violations.
In times like these, the human rights mechanisms benefitted from increased synergy and mutual reinforcement. Mr. Cisse-Gouro noted with pleasure that reference was made to the Committee’s general comment on enforced disappearances in the context of migration in the report of the Human Rights Council’s intersessional panel discussion on the human rights of migrants. This was an excellent example of mutual reinforcement.
The Committee had continued to promote mutual reinforcement in all its activities. Since the last session in February, it had responded positively to more than 15 requests for training and consultations submitted by States and civil society actors around the world to promote the ratification and implementation of the Convention.
On 30 August, the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Committee issued a joint statement with the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, and the representatives of Indonesia and Thailand to the Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. In this statement, the Committee urged all actors to immediately join forces to support victims of enforced disappearances and ensure that their rights and obligations, as codified in regional and international treaties, became a reality for all. The Committee called on actors to take part in the World Congress on Enforced Disappearances, which would be held in Geneva, Switzerland on 15 and 16 January 2025.
On the same occasion, the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that there was no justification for enforced disappearances. Yet, every day, this heinous crime continued to silence and destroy lives. The World Congress in January 2025 was an opportunity to establish a strategy and network so that the world could finally end this tool of terror. Bringing together experts, victims, States and other key actors in the context of this first World Congress on Enforced Disappearances to share their experiences and good practices, and to establish a common strategy to promote the ratification of the Convention and its implementation, was indeed a unique opportunity that needed to be fully seized.
In times like these, it was particularly welcome that, since the last session, Thailand, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Bangladesh became parties to the Convention, which now had 76 States parties. The Office celebrated these ratifications, while continuing its efforts to achieve universal ratification. It hoped that the World Congress would contribute to reaching this objective.
The Office of the High Commissioner continued to actively support efforts to strengthen the treaty body system, which was the key topic at the thirty-sixth annual meeting of the treaty body Chairpersons in New York in June 2024. The Chairpersons met with the Secretary-General and other senior United Nations officials, civil society and Member States. The Chairs made marked progress in terms of aligning working methods, and they advocated together for enlarged support for the implementation of the treaty body strengthening process. At a well-attended meeting with Member States, the Chairs called for resources to implement the predictable review schedule and other key strengthening proposals.
A heavy programme for the next two weeks was before the Committee. It would examine three States parties under the Convention: Ukraine, Morocco and Norway. It would also adopt lists of issues and lists of themes for Belgium, Lesotho, Seychelles and Serbia and consider requesting ad hoc additional information.
Also before the Committee was the report on urgent actions. As of today, the Committee had registered a total of 1,893 urgent actions. Out of these, 1,101 were “living cases” on which the Committee needed to carry out comprehensive follow-up, either individually or in groups. Mr. Cisse-Gouro said he was particularly pleased that since the beginning of the procedure, 512 urgent actions had been closed following the location of the disappeared person, including 15 since the last session. Out of the 512 located persons since the beginning of the implementation of the procedure, it was particularly heartening that 408 of them were located alive. The Committee would also examine one individual complaint, and further discuss projects related to short-term enforced disappearances and to women and enforced disappearances.
Mr. Cisse-Gouro recalled the United Nations' zero tolerance policy on intimidation and reprisals. The Secretary-General had asked all entities to be vigilant and committed in this area. Civil society and victims provided crucial information and testimony to the treaty bodies and provided contextual information essential to their work. States needed to ensure adequate protection against any act of intimidation or reprisal against those who cooperated or had cooperated with the United Nations and its mechanisms.
Mr. Cisse-Gouro concluded by expressing his support to the Committee and wished it a fruitful and productive session.
OLIVIER DE FROUVILLE, Chairperson of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, said the session opened in a context that was worrying for the future. Conflicts of all kinds were multiplying and claiming thousands of victims on all continents. Power politics seemed to be back in international relations more than ever and, within States, merchants of hatred were stirring up mistrust between communities and preparing for tomorrow's conflicts. The disastrous consequences of global warming were increasingly being felt, causing natural disasters that were additional factors of instability.
In this context, the practice of enforced disappearances, far from receding, was spreading throughout the world. Even when enforced disappearance took different forms, the objective always remained the same: to deny the disappeared person any humanity both as a legal person and as a natural person, and to spread terror among those close to them, who suffered the torture of uncertainty, a terror that quickly spread throughout society. But victims were resilient, as were societies.
Experience showed that every time criminals wanted to impose silence and obedience through enforced disappearance, victims’ families assembled in public squares and brandished their photos, asking the simple and fundamental question: "where are they?" Above all, it was women, mothers, sisters, wives who had the courage to call out armed men, because no amount of oppression or extreme violence could make them accept that their loved ones had evaporated into thin air. Their determination eventually gave rise to a new norm of international law: the complete prohibition of enforced disappearance. Their struggle had also led to the adoption of the Convention, in which States pledged to take all measures to make this prohibition effective and to eliminate the practice of enforced disappearance.
It was with a view to fulfilling this promise that several actors joined forces to organise the first World Congress on Enforced Disappearances, which would be held in Geneva on 15 and 16 January 2025. Mr. de Frouville thanked the High Commissioner Völker Turk for agreeing to be present at the opening session of the Congress, as well as his Office and States that were co-sponsoring the event. The Congress’ programme and plan of action were the result of a consultation process carried out since March 2024 with States and all other stakeholders, including victims' associations, civil society organizations. and national human rights institutions. Mr. de Frouville invited all States, including parties and non-parties to the Convention, and all stakeholders who were willing to commit themselves to acting, even modestly, against enforced disappearance to come to the meetings of the Congress.
The fight for respect for human rights needed to be based on robust institutions and procedures. There could be no human rights without an effective rights protection system. However, the treaty bodies system was dramatically under-resourced; its budget was ridiculous in view of the magnitude of its task. In 2023, its budget was 459 million United States dollars, of which only 178 million was financed from the United Nations regular budget, forcing the Office of the High Commissioner to find 280 million in extra-budgetary resources. This sum did not cover all the estimated needs, which would have required an additional 171 million. This amount seemed ludicrous in view of the major role that the United Nations system played today in defending human rights and helping States and civil society to defend them in a world where they were threatened more than ever.
The Committee was therefore pleased by the adoption yesterday in New York of the Pact for the Future by the General Assembly. Among other interesting provisions, Measure 46 of the Pact instructed the Secretary-General “to assess the need to provide the human rights protection mechanisms of the United Nations system, including the Office of the High Commissioner, with adequate, predictable, increased and sustainable funding to enable them to carry out their mandates efficiently and effectively.”
This was in line with the call made by the Chairpersons of the treaty bodies at their thirty-sixth meeting held last July in New York. The Chairs told the Secretary-General and Member States that the treaty bodies needed, before the end of the year, a decisive resolution that would enable them to quickly implement the predictable timetable for the consideration of States' reports. The immediate costs associated with this change would in fact represent a saving in the medium and long term, since the change would be accompanied by a longer reporting period of eight years, and economies of scale resulting from better coordination and complementarity between the 10 Committees and the rest of the system. The Committee Chairs expressed their hope that States would seize this opportunity to strengthen the treaty system decisively.
A year ago, a conference was held on a joint declaration on illegal intercountry adoptions drafted by the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the Committee on the Rights of the Child, and several Special Procedures. The conference was an opportunity to hear from victims from all parts of the world, including adoptees and biological parents searching for their missing children. A documentary about the victims’ story and their quest for the truth would be premiered in Geneva, in parallel with this session, on 1 October 2024 in Auditorium A2 of the Maison de la Paix. The screening would be followed by a debate featuring the victims, who would testify about their experiences. A short excerpt from the documentary would also be shown at the closing of this session on 4 October.
Mr. de Frouville concluded by expressing solidarity with the victims of enforced disappearances, including the disappeared, their families and loved ones, who, day after day, suffered the torture of not knowing what had become of the victims.
SHUI-MENG NG, wife of Sombath Somphone, victim of enforced disappearance in Lao People's Democratic Republic, said her husband was disappeared in December 2012 in front of a police post, where he was pushed into a white vehicle and taken away. Everything that happened at the time of the disappearance was recorded by police traffic cameras. He was a community worker who helped poor farmers to improve their livelihoods. He also worked with young people to find solutions for themselves and become more resilient, and with local communities to help them prepare and respond to climate change. Ms. Ng said she did not know why he had been disappeared, but said his work may have annoyed powerful people, who felt he was threatening their interests.
Ms. Ng did not know if her husband was still alive. This was the pain that victims of enforced disappearance suffered. The pain remained with her every day, despite the passing of time. The fear that he would not come back loomed larger and larger with each day, and the hope that he would return was fading.
Enforced disappearance was the most criminal violation of human rights. Ms. Ng called on the Committee and all States to appeal to the Government of Lao People's Democratic Republic to reveal the truth regarding this enforced disappearance. Ms. Ng had appealed to the authorities and received no information, with authorities simply stating that the investigation was ongoing. The hope that she would receive truth and justice was becoming more remote, but she said that she would not give up. She would continue to raise the case of her husband at every opportunity, seeking news about what happened to him, as well as truth, justice and reparation until her last breath.
Ms. Ng urged the Committee to not forget the victims and their families. There were more than 14,000 cases of enforced disappearance before the United Nations. This was unacceptable in a world where governments claimed to protect their citizens from enforced disappearance. The Lao People's Democratic Republic was a signatory to the Convention but had not ratified it. It nevertheless needed to uphold the spirit of the Convention. In closing, Ms. Ng appealed for the safe return of her husband.
BARBARA LOCHBIHLER, Committee Expert, thanked Ms. Ng for sharing the day that changed her life, the struggle that had defined her life ever since, and the pain that remained with her every day. This case was particular in several respects. Sombath Somphone was a well-known, dedicated and passionate community worker. He was honoured with awards beyond his country. His disappearance did not happen mysteriously in an unknown place but was recorded by police traffic cameras.
International non-governmental organizations like Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch had campaigned on his behalf, and international media had reported on the case. The European Parliament had called for his release, as had parliamentarians from the region. United Nations bodies, including the Human Rights Committee, had questioned the Lao Government on the issue. Ms. Ng’s tireless efforts were based on her professional expertise, her profound knowledge of international structures, and her experience in international solidarity networking. Despite these efforts, Sombath Somphone remained disappeared, his fate and whereabouts still unknown to his family and friends.
Pain and suffering remained with the victims of enforced disappearance every day despite the passing of time, because with time hope faded. Ms. Ng and Mr. Somphone’s supporters had been confronted with ignorance, disregard, inaction, negligence and outright lies from authorities. This was what so many victims of enforced disappearance had to deal with, often exacerbated by reprisals and existential distress. Mr. Somphone’s case clearly showed that an enforced disappearance had not only serious consequences for victims’ family and friends but also had a chilling effect on the civil society of the given community or country. After Mr. Somphone’s disappearance, civil society organizations in Lao People's Democratic Republic were in fear, becoming more careful in their work or even inactive. This surely pleased those responsible for Mr. Somphone’s disappearance.
Ms. Ng, as with victims in so many countries, rightly had high expectations of the Committee. However, the Government of Lao People's Democratic Republic had signed but not ratified the Convention, so the Committee had no formal means to review the situation in the State or ask for information on particular cases. Unfortunately, this applied to many countries in Asia, where only a few States had ratified the Convention.
The Committee was sincerely committed to change this, intensifying its outreach to governments and the broader human rights movement. Last year, it had a fruitful meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations’ Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights. In November, the regional office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Committee would organise several workshops with State and civil society organization representatives in Bangkok, and in January, the World Congress on Enforced Disappearance would gather activists and diplomats, victims and United Nations representatives to discuss ways forward in the fight against enforced disappearances.
Regrettably, the impact of a United Nations treaty body had its limitations. Essential for things to change was serious political will by the Government to act. The Committee would appeal to the Lao Government to demonstrate this political will and would never forget the victims. Ms. Lochbihler thanked Ms. Ng wholeheartedly for addressing the Committee, congratulating her for her passion and energy, and for not being discouraged by years of ignorance and denial. She expressed hope that the search for Ms. Ng’s husband would one day bring to light what really happened, as Ms. Ng had the right to know the truth.
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