Since September 11 and the following War on Terror disappearances are taking place in a different context than traditionally.   

Recently different human rights organisations the council of Europe and the European Parliament have investigated aspects of the disappearances in the war on terror. According to the reports from the different organisations the following may be concluded:

It is well known that the USA keeps prisoners on suspicion of terrorist activities in the special detention centre of Guantanamo Bay. Most of these prisoners are allowed to be visited by the International Committee of the Red Cross and also by their families. However some prisoners have disappeared and became ‘ghost detainees’ because their data are left off the official detainee registers. More than one hundred prisoners held by the US in Iraq are ghost-detainees. Other prisoners are disappeared because they are detained in locations that are not officially accounted for.

The United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances expresses in its last two reports its concern regarding states holding people in secret detention while referring to anti terrorist activities. According to the UNWGEID in those situations one can legally speak of disappearances. The secret renditions which became known late 2005 show that disappearances do occur in the name of the War on Terror.

Herewith a new phenomenon seemed to come into existence: enforced disappearances carried out by democratic states.

That democratic states are using disappearances is a worrying development since it can be seen as an invitation for unsavoury governments to do the same. Countries like Russia and Pakistan have already justified their behaviour as fighting in the War against Terrorism.

The practice of enforced disappearances in the War on Terror therefore indicates a further erosion of the human rights protection.

States really have to ask themselves if they want to jeopardize fundamental human rights in their fight against terrorism.