Enforced disappearance has regularly been used as a tool for instilling fear and exert control over a population. The feeling of insecurity it generates is not limited to close relatives of the disappeared, but also their communities and society as a whole.

In a post on social media platform X, The UN chief said enforced disappearance was “a serious human rights violation that has frequently been used to spread terror…I call on countries to help put an end to this atrocious crime”.

News that may never come

According to the UN human rights office (OHCHR), enforced disappearance can be defined as the arrest, detention, or abduction of an individual by the State or group acting with the authorization of the State, followed by concealment of the whereabouts of the disappeared person. 

It is a crime under International Human Rights Law. Victims are frequently subjected to torture and live in perpetual fear for their lives. Their families, ignorant of the fate of their loved ones, are left wondering and waiting for news that may never come.

According to the UN, hundreds of thousands of people have vanished during conflicts or periods of repression in at least 85 countries around the world. 

‘Every day is a fight’

“For the families & friends of the disappeared, every day is a fight to know the fate & whereabouts of their loved ones. Truth & justice are essential,” said High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in a tweet on Wednesday.

“I call on States to guarantee protection, accountability, transparency & redress for all victims of enforced disappearances,” he continued. 

Global problem

Enforced disappearance, once largely the product of military dictatorships, has become a global problem and is not restricted to a specific region of the world. It has been used frequently as a means of political repression.

At the same time as the UN General Assembly sanctioned the international day in December 2010, the same resolution adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and declared 30 August the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, beginning in 2011.

Practical support

OHCHR officials and a large group of UN-appointed regional human rights experts urged States to provide effective access to justice for victims who have suffered harm as the direct result of enforced disappearance, in a statement delivered on Tuesday.

They warned that ensuring adequate access to justice and proper accountability for perpetrators at all levels was critical.

“Access to justice must not be merely theoretical but guaranteed in practice through concrete measures that promote and fully value the genuine and meaningful participation of victims and their representatives throughout the process,” the experts said.

In the context of the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, OHCHR officials and the group of UN-appointed human rights experts jointly called on all member states to make pledges to promote justice for all victims of enforced disappearances without delay, and to ratify international and regional instruments on enforced disappearances.

UN-appointed regional human rights experts are part of the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council, work on a voluntary and unpaid basis, are not UN staff, and work independently from any government or organisation.

“We are outraged that those searching for forcibly disappeared family members and loved ones continue to be targeted and face violence in Mexico,” they said in a statement, issued in the wake of two recent incidents.

Brutal killing 

Human rights defender Teresa Magueyal was shot dead while riding her bicycle in Celaya, Guanajuato state, on 2 May.  Her son, José Luis Apaseo Magueyal, 34, disappeared three years ago.

Ms. Magueyal was part of a group formed by families of people who have disappeared and was the sixth volunteer to be killed since 2021, according to media reports.

Two months earlier, Araceli Rodríguez Nava, who is in a tireless search for her disappeared son, was attacked in Chilpancingo, capital of Guerrero state. The incident took place on 4 March.

Both women were beneficiaries of the federal protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists, the UN experts said. Although their cases remain under investigation, information about its effectiveness has been scarce. 

Ensure freedom and safety

The UN experts urged the Mexican authorities to ensure human rights defenders working on enforced disappearances can operate freely and safely.

They said enforced disappearances and attacks targeting these activists are linked to the presence of organised crime groups, extortion, human trafficking, kidnapping networks, corruption and collusion with authorities.

Furthermore, operating in a constant environment of fear, threat and insecurity has an intimidating effect on relatives of the victims, civil society, human rights defenders, and organisations.

Investigate and prosecute 

They added that many of the rights defenders are women and older persons, increasing their risk of being targeted.

“It is extremely worrying that impunity for crimes against human rights defenders and activists continues despite complaints being filed. Prevention measures and protection for victims and targets of the attacks are either not provided, or not effective,” they said.

“The Government of Mexico needs to promptly investigate, prosecute, and impose appropriate sanctions on any person responsible for the alleged violations”. 

Adopt all measures 

As their statement was issued on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the UN expert surged the Mexican Government “to adopt all necessary measures to prevent irreparable damage to the life and personal integrity of those searching for the forcibly disappeared, their family members, civil society movements, organisations and public servants.” 

They noted that a presidential campaign called De Frente a la Libertad is underway in Mexico that is giving greater visibility to the risks faced by journalists and human rights activists in the country.

They said it was time for authorities to take effective measures to protect human rights defenders searching for truth and justice. 

About UN rights experts 

The statement was issued by Mary Lawlor, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Reem Alsalem, UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, and Claudia Mahler, Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons.

It was endorsed by a UN Working Group and Committee whose mandates cover enforced or involuntary disappearances.

The experts were appointed by the UN Human Rights Council and work on a voluntary basis.

They are not UN staff and do not receive payment for their work.  

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) adopted a decision under its “early warning and urgent action” procedures, stating that developed countries’ “persistent refusal” to waive COVID-19 vaccine IP rights – such as patents and trademarks – violated non-discrimination guarantees under international human rights law. 

CERD is one of the UN’s human rights treaty bodies. It monitors the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination by its 182 State parties and is composed of 18 independent experts serving in their personal capacity.

Developing world left behind

The Committee said it was addressing in particular countries such as Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States, who were all State parties to the Convention and had developed IP-protected COVID-19 vaccines, treatments and healthcare technologies.

Quoting the latest data from the UN World Health Organization (WHO), the Committee pointed out that while some 32 per cent of the global population have received at least one COVID-19 booster, in developing countries such as Gabon, Papua New Guinea, Burundi and Madagascar, that proportion stands at less than one per cent. 

‘Disproportionate impacts’

The Committee insisted that COVID-19 remained a serious public health issue with devastating negative impacts that are falling “disproportionately” on individuals and groups vulnerable to racial discrimination – in particular people of African or Asian descent, ethnic minorities, Roma communities and Indigenous Peoples.

 In an interview with UN News, CERD chairperson Verene Shepherd underscored the “high levels of morbidity and mortality” affecting these groups. “We can’t allow this to go unattended”, she said.

Suspend IP rights in health crises

The Committee’s experts urged States to incorporate a mechanism that commits governments to suspend intellectual property rights in a health crisis, in the draft pandemic preparedness treaty currently under negotiation at the WHO. 

They called on States parties in the global North to support poorer countries’ healthcare capacity with resources and to enable vaccines, relevant medicines and other necessary equipment and supplies “to be available to all”.

The right to health

The Committee is also in the process of preparing new guidance, under the form of a “general recommendation”, on racial discrimination and the enjoyment of the right to health. 

Ms. Shepherd said that the COVID-19 pandemic was a direct trigger for this project. She stressed that a link had to be made between the historic injustices of slavery and colonialism which “remain largely unaccounted for today” and the low level of attention paid to the health of people of African descent, Indigenous Peoples and ethnic minorities.

The issue was an urgent action item for the Committee, she said, and the first draft adopted in April built upon the “evidence-based link between racial discrimination as a structural social determinant – as recognized by WHO – and the right to health”.

The Committee was gathering contributions from a wide variety of stakeholders to prepare a final version of the guidance, she said.