Geneva, 8 April 2025
The UN Committee
on Enforced Disappearances (CED) today issued its
findings on Belgium, Central African Republic, Gambia,
Malta, and Serbia, after reviewing the five States parties
during its latest session.
The findings contain the
Committee’s main concerns and recommendations on the
implementation of the International
Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced
Disappearance, as well as positive
aspects.
Belgium:
The Committee welcomed the
introduction of a pilot digital register of people deprived
of their liberty, and the steps taken since 2022, toward
establishing a centralized system. It however, remained
concerned about the absence of a unified register across
federal and local police districts. The Committee urged the
State party to expedite the adoption of the royal decree on
the centralized register of people deprived of
liberty.
The Committee recommended that Belgium
strengthen the investigation into the alleged illegal
intercountry adoptions, to determine whether some of these
adoptions originated in enforced disappearances and punish
those responsible.
Central African
Republic:
The Committee welcomed the inclusion of
enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity in the
country’s Criminal Code. It recommended that the State
party take steps, without delay, to make enforced
disappearance an autonomous offence in national legislation,
and incorporate all the mitigating and aggravating
circumstances, as well as the appropriate penalties that
take into account the extreme seriousness of the
crime.
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The Committee recommended that the State party
ensure that the authorities implement prompt, thorough and
impartial search and investigation procedures in all
reported cases of enforced disappearance, and to ensure the
participation and information of all people with a
legitimate interest, at all stages of the
procedure.
The Gambia:
While acknowledging the
State party’s efforts to harmonize the national
legislation with the Convention, the Committee was concerned
about the compliance of these reforms with the Convention.
It urged the Gambia to ensure that enforced disappearance is
incorporated into national legislation as an autonomous
offence and as a crime against humanity and punished with
appropriate penalties, given its extreme
seriousness.
It recommended that the State party
ensure that all disappeared people whose fate is not yet
known are searched for and located; all allegations of
enforced disappearance, including those that occurred after
the end of the Jammeh regime, are investigated effectively
and impartially; and that the relatives of disappeared
people can participate in these
processes.
Malta:
The Committee was concerned
that Malta has not established enforced disappearance as an
autonomous offence in its national law. While the country
criminalizes enforced disappearance as a crime against
humanity, the existing legal framework does not fully
encompass all elements of the offence as defined by the
Convention. It urged the State party to incorporate enforced
disappearance as an autonomous crime.
The Committee
highlighted the absence of comprehensive measures to protect
unaccompanied minors from enforced disappearance,
particularly in migration contexts. The Committee urged the
State Party to establish specialized mechanisms to prevent
and investigate such
disappearances.
Serbia:
The Committee
recommended that Serbia criminalize enforced disappearance
as an autonomous offense, revise penalties and statutes of
limitations to reflect its gravity and expand victim
definitions to ensure inclusivity and full reparation for
all affected individuals.
It was concerned about
Serbia’s refusal to extradite citizens sought by
Kosovo’s judicial authorities and the classification of
key military and police archives, hindering investigations.
The Committee recommended that the State party prioritize
bilateral and multilateral efforts to reactivate cooperation
frameworks, ensure public access to archives, resume
dialogue with Kosovo to implement the Declaration on Missing
Persons signed between Kosovo and Serbia in 2023.
As
of today, the Committee has registered a total of 2011 urgent
actions cases, which are requests to States parties to
immediately search for, locate and protect a disappeared
person.
During the session, the Committee also decided
to activate the procedure of article 34 of the Convention
for Mexico, under which , “if the Committee receives
information which appears to it to contain well-founded
indications that enforced disappearance is being practiced
on a widespread or systematic basis in the territory under
the jurisdiction of a State Party, it may, after seeking
from the State Party concerned all relevant information on
the situation, urgently bring the matter to the attention of
the General Assembly of the United Nations, through the
Secretary-General of the United Nations”.
In his
closing remarks, the Chair said that, as a first step of the
procedure, the Committee will seek information from the
State party, which in no way prejudges the next steps in the
proceedings, and recalled that as for the implementation of
all its mandate, the Committee’s aim is “to maintain
cooperation and constructive exchanges with the State in
order to achieve our common objective, which is the full
implementation of the Convention”.
The country
review findings, officially known as Concluding Observations
on first reports and stand-alone requests for additional
information, as well as the report on Urgent Actions, and
other documents, are available on the session
webpage.
