The International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance
Reply to Recommendation
| Doc. 13098
| 21 January 2013
- Author(s):
- Committee of Ministers
- Origin
- Adopted
at the 1159th meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies (16 January 2013). 2013 - First part-session
- Reply to Recommendation
- : Recommendation 1995
(2012)
- Thesaurus
1. The Committee of Ministers has carefully
considered Recommendation 1995 (2012) of the Parliamentary Assembly
on "The International Convention for the Protection of all Persons
from Enforced Disappearance", which it has transmitted to a number
of intergovernmental bodies for information and possible comments.
Note
2. The Committee of Ministers welcomes the entry into force in
2010 of the United Nations International Convention for the Protection
of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, which deals with a
serious human rights violation that regrettably still occurs in
Europe.
Note Further, the Committee of Ministers invites
the States that have not yet done so to consider signing and ratifying
the United Nations' Convention as soon as possible, and invites
them to consider recognising the competence of the Committee on
Enforced Disappearances.
3. The Committee of Ministers takes note of the opinion of the
Assembly that the United Nations' Convention fails to address certain
elements, but observes that some existing instruments of the Council
of Europe to combat enforced disappearances already go beyond the
United Nations' Convention, particularly regarding the temporal
jurisdiction of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances as expressed
in paragraph 3.4 of Recommendation 1995 (2012). This is notable
with regard to the fact that the European Court of Human Rights
has already ruled in cases of enforced disappearances and declared
itself competent ratione temporis to examine, under Article 2 in
its procedural aspect, an allegation of enforced disappearance occurring
prior to the entry into force of the European Convention on Human
Rights in respect of the country in question.
Note As regards paragraphs
3.1, 3.2 and 3.3 of the recommendation, the Committee of Ministers
notes that these points have already been discussed in depth and
are the result of consensus reached under negotiations of the United Nations'
Convention. It therefore considers that it would be inappropriate
to reopen the debate on these questions during any negotiations
to be held in the framework of the Council of Europe.
4. As regards the invitation formulated in paragraph 4, the Committee
of Ministers expresses its opinion that, since the United Nations'
Convention only entered into force on 23 December 2010 and its monitoring mechanism,
the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, only started to fully
operate in November 2011 with two annual sessions, it appears premature
at this stage to assess the effectiveness of the United Nations' Convention
system and to draw any conclusions with regard to launching a process
of negotiation of a European convention.
5. Regarding the elaboration of the activities and instruments
within the Council of Europe to combat enforced disappearances mentioned
in the explanatory memorandum to Resolution 1868 (2012) of the Assembly,
the Committee of Ministers would like to draw attention to its Recommendation
CM/Rec(2009)12 to member States on principles concerning missing
persons and the presumption of death.
6. While the Committee of Ministers does not intend at this stage
to carry out new normative work in this field, it will continue
to follow closely the developments of the on-going work of the Committee
on Enforced Disappearances and the ratification and implementation
process of the United Nations' Convention, with a view to any future
consideration of further legal or policy instruments which the Council
of Europe might pursue.
