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International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance enters into force
Tomorrow (23 December) the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance will enter into force.
In this connection Werner Hoyer, Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, issued the following statement:
“I strongly welcome the entry into force of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. As an active campaigner for the Convention, Germany has played a leading role in combating serious human rights abuses. Enforced disappearance is one of worst forms of oppression by the state; it involves massive human rights abuses and continues to be practised in many countries. I appeal to all countries that have not yet done so to become a party to the Convention and thereby take a firm stand against this serious abuse of human rights.”
The Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was adopted by the United Nations with a view to combating enforced disappearances more effectively. It requires states parties to make enforced disappearance a punishable offence and grants victims of enforced disappearance and their relatives the right to seek information and compensation. It also provides for a special monitoring body, to which human rights abuses can be reported and which is intended increasingly to assume a preventive function as well.
Under the terms of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance of 20 December 2006, it enters into force 30 days after the 20th instrument of accession or ratification has been deposited with the United Nations Secretary-General. This has now happened. Germany has already ratified the Convention, its instrument of ratification was deposited on 24 September 2009.
