CGNK at the 1st World Congress on Enforced Disappearances
Over 500 persons gathered in Geneva, 15th and 16th of January, to discuss, overcome and prevent enforced disappearances at the 1st World Congress on this issue. CGNK was present through its UN representative in Geneva, Christophe Barbey. The topic is high on the agenda with the opening of the prisons in Syria; the figure is that they are as much as 150’000 people who have gone missing during the war.
Enforced disappearances is a crime under international law. There is a Human Rights Convention on the topic, 77 States have ratified it so far. The convention has its own legal committee, overviewing the situation of persons presumably disappeared in all States parties to the convention. There is also a working group that will look at the situation of enforced disappearances in any country in the world. Both may issue urgent appeals and discuss the situation with the concerned States.
From a broader perspective, the human right not to be forcibly disappeared is conversely the right to a full and free presence, the right to an identity and to a lively personality. Further, presence bears the right to truth – and as long as the whereabouts of someone who disappeared are not known the crime goes on; the authors or those that could tell where the person or its remnants are, are accomplices. A right to truth, transparence and honesty which is also the basis needed for peaceful relations of all sorts.
The Deputy High Commissioner on Human Rights, Madam Nada Al-Nashif opened the congress, recalling the past and calling for more action on the issue in the future. The congress was very intense – and sometimes disrupted by the lively actions of many relatives or liberated persons, as an example in relation to the official interventions of State delegates from Marocco, Mauritania or Mexico. Many other country’ situations were mentioned, and pledges were taken to advance with the cause, or even to eradicate enforced disappearance altogether.
Our representative in Geneva, Christophe Barbey regularly demands, through the Universal periodic review mechanism, to States that have not yet ratified the Human Rights Convention on enforced disappearances to urgently do so. This work, with your support, will continue. We appreciate tips for our United Nations and related activities. You can donate whatever you want, 1 or 10, or more, once or regularly on our tipeee page, were you can also find photos and a short video.
