The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED) is an international human rights instrument of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

intended to prevent

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organi ...

, which, as defined in international law, is part of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

. The text was adopted by the

United Nations General Assembly The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA or GA; french: link=no, Assemblée générale, AG) is one of the six principal organs of the United Nations (UN), serving as the main deliberative, policymaking, and representative organ of the UN. Curr ...

on 20 December 2006 and opened for signature on 6 February 2007. It entered into force on 23 December 2010. As of November 2022, 98 states have signed the convention and 68 have ratified it.

Genesis

Following a General Assembly resolution in 1992 containing a 21 article declaration about enforced disappearance, and its resolution of 1978 requesting that recommendations be made, the Commission on Human Rights established an "inter-sessional open-ended working group to elaborate a draft legally binding normative instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance" in 2001. The Group concluded its work in 2006 and its draft international convention was adopted by the Human Rights Council on 29 June 2006, and welcomed the offer by France to host the signing ceremony. On 20 December 2006, the General Assembly adopted without a vote the text of the Convention and opened it for signature at the signing ceremony in Paris.

Summary

The convention is modelled heavily on the

United Nations Convention Against Torture The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (commonly known as the United Nations Convention Against Torture (UNCAT)) is an international human rights treaty under the review of the United Nation ...

. "Enforced disappearance" is defined in Article 2 of the Convention as :''the arrest, detention,

abduction Abduction may refer to: Media Film and television * "Abduction" (''The Outer Limits''), a 2001 television episode * " Abduction" (''Death Note'') a Japanese animation television series * " Abductions" (''Totally Spies!''), a 2002 episode of an ...

or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.'' Article 1 of the Convention further states that :''No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.'' The widespread or systematic use of enforced disappearance is further defined as a crime against humanity in Article 5. Parties to the convention undertake to: * investigate acts of enforced disappearance and bring those responsible to justice; * ensure that enforced disappearance constitutes an offence under its

criminal law Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law ...

; * establish jurisdiction over the offence of enforced disappearance when the alleged offender is within its territory, even if they are not a citizen or resident; * cooperate with other states in ensuring that offenders are prosecuted or extradited, and to assist the victims of enforced disappearance or locate and return their remains; * respect minimum legal standards around the deprivation of liberty, including the right for imprisonment to be challenged before the courts; * establish a register of those currently imprisoned, and allow it to be inspected by relatives and counsel; * ensure that victims of enforced disappearance or those directly affected by it have a right to obtain reparation and compensation. (Article 24. 4) * the right to obtain reparation covers material and dangers and, where appropriate, other forms of reparation such as; a) Restitution. b)

Rehabilitation Rehabilitation or Rehab may refer to: Health * Rehabilitation (neuropsychology), therapy to regain or improve neurocognitive function that has been lost or diminished * Rehabilitation (wildlife), treatment of injured wildlife so they can be retur ...

. c) Satisfication, including restoration of dignity and reparation. d) Guarantee of non-repetition. (Article 24. 5) The Convention will be governed by a Committee on Enforced Disappearances elected by its parties. Parties are obliged to report to this committee on the steps they have taken to implement it within two years of becoming subject to it. The Convention includes an optional complaints system whereby citizens of parties may appeal to the Committee for assistance in locating a disappeared person. Parties may join this system at any time, but may only opt out of it upon signature.

Reservations

New Zealand

While the

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

government supports the Convention and joined the consensus leading to its adoption, it retains significant concerns around inconsistencies between the convention and established international law. These include the definition of enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity in Article 5, and the Article 6 provisions relating to command responsibility. According to an MFAT spokesperson, New Zealand "has no immediate plans" to sign or ratify the Convention.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom stated its position during the discussion that followed the adoption of the General Assembly resolution on several technical points about the Convention. For example, on Article 18, which sets out the minimum information that a lawyer or relative of a person deprived of liberty should have access to (such as when the arrest took place, who gave the order, and the health of the person), the ambassador explained that if the deprivation of liberty of a person was done legally according to the laws of the country, and was not an "enforced disappearance", then such information could be withheld from the relatives and legal counsel. A question asked in Parliament about whether there was any intention to sign the Convention, resulted in the answer that the Government needed "to conduct a detailed analysis of the provisions of the treaty and their implications for implementation in order to determine the UK's position towards ratification".

United States

A question during the daily State Department Press briefing that coincided with the date of the signing ceremony resulted in the following exchange: :QUESTION: Did you notice that 57 countries signed a treaty today that would basically bar governments from holding secret detainees and the U.S. did not join? :MR. MCCORMACK: Yeah. This is—I understand that there is a Convention for the Protection of All Persons and Enforced Disappearances. And I know—I have some information on it here, George. I confess I don't have all the details. I do know that we participated in all the meetings that produced the draft. Beyond that, I can't give you specific reasons here from the podium as to why we didn't sign on to it. We've put out a public document that I can give you the citation for afterwards and it explains our reasons for not participating in the draft. But I think just as a general comment, clearly the draft that was put up for a vote or put for signature was not one that met our needs and expectations.

Signatories and ratifications

The Convention attracted 57 signatures when opened for signature in Paris. Controversially, the United States did not sign, saying that it "did not meet our expectations". A number of European countries were not initial signatories to the convention; these included the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands. Spain, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands have subsequently signed and ratified the convention. The initial signatories were Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Congo, Croatia, France, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Japan, Lithuania, Maldives, Moldavia, Morocco, Uganda, Senegal, Serbia, Sierra Leone, Macedonia, Chad, Tunisia, Vanuatu, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia Herzegovina, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chile, Comoros, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Finland, Grenada, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Niger, Paraguay, Portugal, Samoa, Sweden, and Uruguay. As of November 2022, 68 states have ratified or acceded to the convention.

International Campaign for the Convention

The International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) is a global network of organisations of families of disappeared and NGO's campaigning in a nonviolent manner against the practice of enforced disappearances at the local, national and international level. The ICAED was founded in 2007 as a result from the 25-year-long struggle of families of disappeared and human rights defenders for an international legally binding instrument against enforced disappearances. The primary purpose of the ICAED is working together towards early ratification and effective implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and s ...

is campaigning for

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-w ...

Burundi Burundi (, ), officially the Republic of Burundi ( rn, Repuburika y’Uburundi ; Swahili: ''Jamuhuri ya Burundi''; French: ''République du Burundi'' ), is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley at the junction between the African Gr ...

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to A ...

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus lie ...

Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...

Serbia Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia ( Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hu ...

, and

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to t ...

to ratify the convention.

References

External links

Full text of the Convention

UN list of signatories and ratifications

International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances

on the ''International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance'' in th

of the United Nations Audiovisual Library of International Law {{DEFAULTSORT:Enforced Disappearance Protection Convention Human rights instruments United Nations treaties International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance Treaties concluded in 2006 Treaties entered into force in 2010 Treaties of Albania Treaties of Argentina Treaties of Armenia Treaties of Austria Treaties of Belgium Treaties of Belize Treaties of Benin Treaties of Bolivia Treaties of Bosnia and Herzegovina Treaties of Brazil Treaties of Burkina Faso Treaties of Cambodia Treaties of the Central African Republic Treaties of Chile Treaties of Colombia Treaties of Costa Rica Treaties of Croatia Treaties of Cuba Treaties of the Czech Republic Treaties of Denmark Treaties of Dominica Treaties of Ecuador Treaties of Fiji Treaties of France Treaties of Gabon Treaties of the Gambia Treaties of Germany Treaties of Greece Treaties of Honduras Treaties of Iraq Treaties of Italy Treaties of Japan Treaties of Kazakhstan Treaties of Lesotho Treaties of Lithuania Treaties of Malawi Treaties of Mali Treaties of Malta Treaties of Mauritania Treaties of Mexico Treaties of Mongolia Treaties of Montenegro Treaties of Morocco Treaties of the Netherlands Treaties of Niger Treaties of Nigeria Treaties of Oman Treaties of Panama Treaties of Paraguay Treaties of Peru Treaties of Portugal Treaties of Samoa Treaties of Senegal Treaties of Serbia Treaties of Seychelles Treaties of Slovakia Treaties of Spain Treaties of Sri Lanka Treaties of Sudan Treaties of Switzerland Treaties of Togo Treaties of Tunisia Treaties of Ukraine Treaties of Uruguay Treaties of Zambia International criminal law treaties 2006 in France Treaties adopted by United Nations General Assembly resolutions Treaties extended to the Caribbean Netherlands