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UNITED NATIONS E Economic and Social Distr. Council GENERAL E/CN.4/1998/43 12 January 1998 Original: ENGLISH COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS Fiftyfourth session Item 8 (c) of the provisional agenda QUESTION OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL PERSONS SUBJECTED TO ANY FORM OF DETENTION OR IMPRISONMENT QUESTION OF ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances GE.9810094 (E) E/CN.4/1998/43 page 2 CONTENTS Paragraphs Page Introduction ....................... 1 5 5 I. ACTIVITIES OF THE WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES IN 1997 ....... 6 75 6 A. Meetings and missions of the Working Group . 6 12 6 B. Communications ............... 13 16 6 C. Methods of work .............. 17 7 D. Draft international convention on the prevention and punishment of enforced disappearances ............... 18 20 8 E. Former Yugoslavia ............. 21 22 8 F. Compensation, presumption of death and exhumation ................. 23 65 9 G. Implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance ............... 66 75 16 II. INFORMATION CONCERNING ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES REVIEWED BY THE WORKING GROUP, AND THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY 76 403 18 Afghanistan ................... 76 79 18 Algeria ..................... 80 87 18 Angola ..................... 88 91 20 Argentina .................... 92 101 21 Bangladesh ................... 102 104 22 Bolivia ..................... 105 107 22 Brazil ..................... 108 110 23 Burkina Faso .................. 111 113 23 Burundi ..................... 114 117 24 Cameroon .................... 118 120 24 Chad ...................... 121 123 25 Chile ...................... 124 129 25 China ...................... 130 134 26 Colombia .................... 135 147 27 Cyprus ..................... 148 151 30 Democratic Republic of the Congo ........ 152 155 31 Dominican Republic ............... 156 158 31 E/CN.4/1998/43 page 3 CONTENTS (continued) Paragraphs Page II. Ecuador ..................... 159 162 32 (cont'd) Egypt ...................... 163 166 32 El Salvador ................... 167 171 33 Equatorial Guinea ................ 172 174 34 Ethiopia .................... 175 179 34 Greece ..................... 180 182 35 Guatemala .................... 183 190 35 Guinea ..................... 191 193 37 Haiti ...................... 194 196 37 Honduras .................... 197 202 37 India ...................... 203 217 38 Indonesia .................... 218 225 41 Iran (Islamic Republic of) ........... 226 232 42 Iraq ...................... 233 239 44 Israel ..................... 240 242 45 Kuwait ..................... 243 244 45 Lao People's Democratic Republic ........ 245 247 46 Lebanon ..................... 248 254 46 Libyan Arab Jamahiriya ............. 255 256 48 Mauritania ................... 257 259 48 Mexico ..................... 260 269 48 Morocco ..................... 270 278 50 Mozambique ................... 279 281 52 Nepal ...................... 282 284 53 Nicaragua .................... 285 288 53 Pakistan .................... 289 291 54 Paraguay .................... 293 295 54 Peru ...................... 296 307 55 Philippines ................... 308 322 57 Russian Federation ............... 323 328 59 Rwanda ..................... 329 335 60 Seychelles ................... 336 338 61 South Africa .................. 339 340 62 Sri Lanka .................... 341 350 62 Sudan ...................... 351 356 64 Syrian Arab Republic .............. 357 360 66 Tajikistan ................... 361 363 66 Togo ...................... 364 365 67 Turkey ..................... 366 378 67 Uganda ..................... 379 381 70 Ukraine ..................... 382 383 70 United Arab Emirates .............. 384 385 70 Uruguay ..................... 386 390 71 Uzbekistan ................... 391 393 71 Venezuela .................... 394 396 72 Yemen ...................... 397 401 72 Palestinian Authority .............. 402 403 73 E/CN.4/1998/43 page 4 CONTENTS (continued) Paragraphs Page III. COUNTRIES IN WHICH ALL REPORTED CASES OF DISAPPEARANCE HAVE BEEN CLARIFIED ........ 404 407 73 Gambia ..................... 404 73 Saudi Arabia .................. 405 74 Zambia ..................... 406 407 74 IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ......... 408 419 74 V. ADOPTION OF THE REPORT ............. 420 77 Annexes I. Decisions on individual cases taken by the Working Group during 1997 ......................... 79 II. Statistical summary: Cases of enforced or involuntary disappearances reported to the Working Group between 1980 and 1997 .......................... 84 III. Graphs showing the development of disappearances in countries with more than 100 transmitted cases during the period 19731997 ...................... 91 E/CN.4/1998/43 page 5 Introduction 1. The present report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is submitted pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1997/26, entitled “Question of enforced disappearances”. 1 In addition to the specific tasks entrusted to the Working Group by the Commission in this resolution, the Group has also taken into account other mandates stemming from a number of resolutions adopted by the Commission 2 entrusted to all special rapporteurs and working groups. All these tasks have been given due attention and consideration by the Working Group in the course of 1997; in view of the page limit imposed on all reports, however, the Working Group decided not to reproduce the content of these resolutions as it has done in the past. 2. In addition to its original mandate, which is to act as a channel of communication between families of the disappeared persons and the Governments concerned, with a view to ensuring that sufficiently documented and clearly identified individual cases are investigated and the whereabouts of the disappeared persons clarified, the Working Group has been entrusted by the Commission with various other tasks. In particular, the Working Group is to monitor States' compliance with their obligations deriving from the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. 3 The Working Group has taken the Declaration into account, in particular in adopting observations on individual countries. As last year, these countryspecific observations have been prepared on all countries with more than 50 alleged cases of disappearance, or where more than 5 cases were reported during the period under review. All countryspecific observations are to be found at the end of the respective country chapters in part II of the present report. 3. As in previous years, the Working Group has continued to apply the urgent action procedure in cases that allegedly occurred within three months preceding the receipt of the report by the Group. This year the Working Group sent urgent action appeals to Governments in respect of 140 cases to the following Governments: Algeria, Burundi, Colombia, Ecuador, India, Indonesia, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mexico, Morocco, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey, Zambia. An urgent action appeal was also sent to the Palestine Authority. It has also promptly intervened with the Governments of Colombia and Mexico on cases in which relatives of missing persons, or other individuals or organizations which have cooperated with the Group, or their legal counsel, are said to have been subjected to intimidation, persecution or other reprisals. 4. The total number of cases transmitted by the Working Group to Governments since the Group’s inception stands at 47,758. The total number of cases being kept under active consideration as they have not yet been clarified now stands at 44,940. The number of countries with outstanding cases of alleged disappearance was 63 in 1997. During the period under review, the Working Group received some 1,111 new cases of disappearance in 26 countries, 180 of which allegedly occurred in 1997. 5. As in the past, the present report reflects only communications or cases examined before the last day of the third annual session of the Working Group, which was 21 November 1997. Urgent action cases which may have to be dealt E/CN.4/1998/43 page 6 with between that date and the end of the year, as well as communications received from Governments and processed after 21 November 1997, will be reflected in the Working Group's next report. I. ACTIVITIES OF THE WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES IN 1997 A. Meetings and missions of the Working Group 6. The Working Group held three sessions in 1997. The fifty-first session was held in New York from 12 to 16 May, and the fifty-second and fifty-third sessions were held at Geneva from 18 to 22 August and from 12 to 21 November, respectively. During its 1997 sessions, the Working Group met with representatives of the Governments of Guatemala, the Islamic Republic of Iran, Mexico, the Philippines, Uruguay and Yemen. 7. The Group also met with representatives of human rights organizations, associations of relatives of missing persons and families or witnesses directly concerned with reports of enforced disappearances. 8. The Working Group decided to consider the dates for the visit to Colombia during its 1998 sessions. To date it has received no reply from the Government of Iraq to its letter dated 21 July 1995 requesting