Statement by H.E. Ambassador Wolfgang PETRITSCH
Permanent Representative of Austria
on behalf of the European Union
Geneva, 27 June 2006
Check against delivery
Mr Chairman,
The European Union would like to thank the president-rapporteur of the working group for his presentation.
The Acceding Countries Bulgaria and Romania, the Candidate Countries Turkey, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Countries of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidates Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and the EFTA countries Iceland and Liechtenstein members of the European Economic Area, as well as Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova align themselves with this declaration.
The working group concluded its work in September 2005. It decided that it had finished its work and that the draft Convention on enforced disappearances should be transmitted to the Commission on Human Rights.
The Commission on Human Rights has been working on the issue of enforced disappearances since the beginning of the 1980’s. In the course of several decades, we have developed a better understanding of this odious crime ; how it violates a large number of human rights of the victims, how it is linked to torture and arbitrary detention, how it violates also the rights of the relatives of the victim and how it is used to silence and threaten entire populations.
Despite the creation of the working group on enforced and involuntary disappearances and the adoption in 1992 of the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from enforced disappearances, the phenomenon still persists. It is not a crime of the past. It is not limited to a specific region. Today, on all 5 continents, people disappear and their fate is never elucidated. The need for an international convention is therefore obvious.
The draft Convention represents a step forward for international human rights. It defines the crime of enforced disappearances. It organises the fight against impunity of perpetrators, both at the national and international levels. It also describes which preventive measures must be taken. Finally, it creates a committee of independent experts, to ensure appropriate implementation of the Convention. The European Union believes that the Convention will be a powerful tool to prevent enforced disappearances in the future.
The European Union calls for the prompt adoption of the Convention by the Council and its transfer to the General Assembly this fall.
* Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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