UN insists on protocols against disappearances

Two United Nations expert groups on enforced disappearances yesterday called on states to establish and activate protocols for the immediate search of disappeared persons across the world.

Marking International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, which is observed on August 30 (tomorrow), the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances urged governments to activate all means of search in a systematic way.

Over the last year, the committee has been working on 246 recent cases of enforced disappearances perpetrated all over the world, according to a UN press release received from Geneva.

The expert groups called upon governments to take action immediately after a disappearance case is reported and to guarantee full protection from all forms of reprisals of those who report cases, the authors of the urgent actions requests, the witnesses, the relatives of the disappeared persons, their defence counsels, and all persons taking part in the related investigations.

Victim families also have been encouraged to make use of the tool provided by the urgent action procedures of the expert teams.

The lack of resources and insufficient awareness of existing international mechanisms are among the reasons why many cases of enforced disappearances are never reported to the United Nations.