November 9, 2012 Enforced Disappearances Still Happen in Many
Countries The practice of enforced disappearances perseveres in
many countries, a group of independent United Nations experts
warned today, following their review of more than 400 cases
spanning 31 nations. At the conclusion of its 98th session held
in Geneva, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances expressed their “deepest concern” that 20 years
since the adoption of the Declaration on the Protection of All
Persons from Enforced disappearance, the practice of vanishing
people was still continuing unabated around the world. The
Declaration was adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1992.
Among its articles, it states that “any act of enforced
disappearance is an offence to human dignity,” and it condemns
such actions “as a grave and flagrant violation of the human
rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights.” The Working Group was established
by the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1980