Disappeared, but not forgotten
In a highly symbolic move, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the Human Rights Council is conducting its 85th session in the capital of Argentina, Buenos Aires.
The Group’s decision on the venue for the 24 – 26 July session is proof that Argentina has come a long way from its “Dirty War” of the late 1970s and early 1980s. That conflict saw some 30,000 people abducted and killed by groups working for the military junta then ruling the country.
The repression in Argentina, and similar events elsewhere in Latin America, brought the desaparecidos, or “the disappeared”, to the forefront of international concern. To support the tireless efforts of civil society organizations and relatives of the victims to obtain justice, the Commission on Human Rights, which preceded the Human Rights Council, established the Working Group on Disappearances as its first Special Procedures mechanism.
The mandate of the Working Group is to help relatives of those who have disappeared to learn the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones. The group meets three times a year to discuss individual cases, new information on previously submitted cases, and other issues pertaining to disappearances throughout the world.
Until recently, the Working Group held two of its three annual sessions in Geneva and the other in New York. In 2004 the group held a session in Thailand, and in future expects to hold more sessions outside the two main UN headquarters.
The Group has much to do. Despite its many efforts to persuade governments to take appropriate legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to put a stop to disappearances, not enough progress has been made.
States have been slow to ratify the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances, adopted by the Human Rights Council in June 2006 and by the General Assembly in December the same year. Twenty States must ratify the convention for it to enter into force, but so far only four have done so.
Since its inception, the Working Group has dealt with more than 51,000 cases of disappeared persons from some 80 countries. More than 41,000 cases remain outstanding.
In Argentina, of 3,445 cases submitted to the Government, 99 were clarified by the authorities, who provided information on the fate or whereabouts of the missing. Another 43 cases were resolved by those who originally reported a disappearance. More than 3,300 cases remain unresolved.
Santiago Corcuera, the chairperson of the Working Group, which includes independent experts from all the regions of the world, says the group’s diversity “allows it to work collectively and produce balanced results when addressing the complex situation of enforced disappearances around the world.”
The Group meets in closed sessions in order to protect the confidentiality of its cases. “If a member is a national of a concerned country,” says Corcuera, “he or she leaves the room and does not participate in the discussion or decisions relating to that country, thus avoiding a potential conflict of interests.”
The Working Group’s session in Buenos Aires will be preceded by a country visit beginning 21 July, during which it will look at the overall situation on disappearances in Argentina.
The decision to hold the latest session in Buenos Aires acknowledges the measures taken by the Government of Argentina to address the issue of disappearances. For instance, the authorities have repealed amnesty laws which allowed perpetrators of disappearances escape punishment. They have also created mechanisms to identify and return to their relatives children taken from parents who disappeared.
The Working Group hopes to show how some of the methods devised to deal with disappearances in Argentina could be useful in other countries. By meeting in Argentina it will also honour the memory of those who were made to disappear in the country and the tireless efforts of their families to find out what happened to them.