NGO declaration on Disappearance Convention

Kawan-kawan yang baik,

Ini ada perkembangan ke arah yang tidak mengenakkan sehubungan dengan usaha pengesahan Konvensi Anti Penghilangan Paksa (Draft International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance). Untuk tetap mendesakkan agenda pengesahan Rancangan Konvensi tersebut dalam Sidang Komisi HAM PBB Sesi 62 nanti, kami SANGAT MENGHARAPKAN DUKUNGAN KAWAN-KAWAN SEKALIAN dengan cara mencantumkan nama organisasi, nama Anda dan jabatan Anda dalam petisi tersebut. FIDH sebagai organisasi yang menginisiatifi usaha ini, mengharapkan dukungan tersebut sudah sampai ke mereka hari ini, Kamis, 16 Maret pukul 14.00 waktu Jenewa (atau sekitar pukul 20.00 WIB). Dukungan petisi tersebut harap dikirimkan ke email interngeneva@fidh.org, dengan subjek "NGO declaration on Disappearance Convention".

Demikian permohonan dukungan ini kami sampaikan. Terima kasih.

NB: Petisi terlampir di bagian paling bawah.

Salam hangat,
Mugiyanto
IKOHI
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Dear Colleagues,

You will have heard that the opening of the 62nd CHR has been postponed for one week. Discussion is ongoing in the CHR bureau on the modalities of organisation of this last session. A number of countries are advocating for a purely procedural commission, that would not adopt any resolution, but for an omnibus resolution to transfer the work of the Commission to the Human Rights Council.

Following this scenario, the draft convention on disappearances would not be adopted at the 62nd session but handed to the Council, its adoption put back to whenever the Council would be operational.ICJ, HRW and FIDH have today addressed a letter to members of the UN Commission on Human rights in Geneva, in order to call on them to adopt the Convention at the 62nd session. Given the state of affairs, we believe necessary to issue a declaration signed by as many organisations as possible, joining the call.

I would therefore like to invite you to sign the attached declaration (copied hereunder).* NGOs wishing to sign should send an email to interngeneva@fidh.orgunder the subject "NGO declaration on Disappearance Convention" with the name of the organisation, country where it is based, name and function of the signatory.* Signatures will be collected up till tomorrow afternoon, 14.OO pm Geneva time.

Thank you for responding promptly, and forwarding this email to any other interested organisation.

Thanking you for your support,

Antoine Madelin
FIDH

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NGO Declaration

Building protection for the victims of disappearances cannot be held hostage
to transitional arrangements

NGOs call on Member States to adopt Draft Convention on Enforced Disappearance
at the 62nd Commission on Human Rights


We, the undersigned NGOs call on Member States of the UN Commissionon Human Rights to adopt the Draft International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance at the 62nd and ultimate session and to transmit it to the General Assembly for its final adoption.

We fear that the Commission, for reasons of transitional arrangements, would postpone the adoption of the text to hand it to the Council. Yet, we believe that further delaying its adoption would jeopardize it.

Postponing the adoption of such an important text for procedural reasons would be an act of betrayal for the families of victims that have been working for the adoption of the text for many years: building protection for the families of victims cannot be held hostage to transitional arrangements. The Commission has a historical opportunity to adopt the Draft Convention and it should not let it pass.

The Convention fills a huge gap in international law: the absence at the universal level of a treaty addressing the multiple human rights violations and the international crime that is enforced disappearance.

This text, adopted by consensus on 23 September 2005 by the intersessional Working Group established by the Commission, is the result of several years of work of the Working Group. The consensus was reached thanks to the constructive spirit of all delegations. The Draft Convention is now before the Commission for its adoption.
Since 1980, when the first ever independent enquiry mechanism of the Commission on Human Rights, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances was established, the Commission has made tireless efforts to face this hideous practice of enforced disappearance. In 1992, the Commission adopted the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. In 2006, as this work is nearing its end, it would be incomprehensible if the Commission did not renew its commitment against enforced disappearance and did not adopt the Draft International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

Signatories
1. International Commission of Jurists, Nicholas Howen, Secretary General
2. F??ation internationale des ligues des droits de l'Homme (FIDH), Sidiki Kaba, President
3. Human Rights Watch, Reed Brody
4. Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared (IKOHI), Indonesia, Mugiyanto, Chairperson

5. May 18 Memorial Foundation, South Korea, Agnes Gurning, International Intern


DISAPPEARANCES, NUNCA MAS!
Ikatan Keluarga Orang Hilang Indonesia - IKOHI
Indonesian Association of Families of the Disappeared
Jl. Borobudur No. 14, Jakarta 10320
Telp/Fax: +62-21-31904733
Email: kembalikan@yahoo.com, Web: www.ikohi.org
JAKARTA - INDONESIA