The International Convention against Enforced Involuntary Disappearances provides for the establishment of a Committee on Enforced Disappearances to execute the functions of the Convention.

This committee will be composed of 10 independent experts who will be elected by secret ballot from a list of people nominated by States Parties for a mandate period of four years. The election of the first group of members of the Committee will be elected in the course of the six months (and no later than that) following the date of entry into force of the Convention.

The functions of the Committee on Disappearances will be as follow:

• Examine reports submitted by states that have ratified the convention;
• Seek and find a disappeared person (international habeas corpus procedure);
• Receive individual and interstate complaints (States Parties must expressly recognize the competence of the Committee in this sense);
• Carry out country visits (upon previous authorization of the State concerned); and
• Inform the General Assembly of the United Nations, through the Secretary General, about the existence of a widespread and systematic practice of disappearance in the territory of a State Party.

In order to fulfil these functions the Committee will be able to establish its own procedures of work. The General assembly will provide the Committee with the necessary facilities, privileges and immunities. Finally each State Party will cooperate with, and assist the Committee, to the extent of the Committee’s functions that the State Party has accepted.