The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has confirmed that it will visit Sri Lanka from August 3 – 12.
The Working Group is also reviewing almost 400 cases of enforced disappearance from 30 countries, including recent ones and updated information on previous cases during its current meeting in Geneva, from 6 – 15 May.
The expert body will exchange information on these individual cases and other relevant issues with State delegations, relatives of those who have disappeared, civil society representatives and national human rights institutions.
The Group’s five independent experts will also discuss thematic issues related to enforced disappearances, and examine allegations received regarding obstacles encountered in the implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
The members will also adopt the Working Group’s annual report and the reports on the regional visit to Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo and Montenegro and they will discuss the forthcoming visits to Peru (1 – 10 June 2015), Sri Lanka (3 – 12 August 2015), Turkey (16 – 20 November 2015) and other future country visits, as well as other activities of the Working Group. The Working Group’s 106th session is held in private. A press release will be issued at the end of the session, on 16 May 2015.
The Working Group was established by the then UN Commission on Human Rights in 1980 to assist families in determining the fate and whereabouts of disappeared relatives. It endeavours to establish a channel of communication between the families and the Governments concerned, to ensure that individual cases are investigated, with the objective of clarifying the whereabouts of persons who, having disappeared, are placed outside the protection of the law. In view of the Working Group’s humanitarian mandate, clarification occurs when the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person are clearly established. The Working Group continues to address cases of disappearances until they are resolved.
