FEMED: Press release at the occasion of 30 years UNWGEID

The press release is entitled: "30 years after the WGEID's creation: stop enforced disappearances", and was released by the Euro-Mediterannean Federation against Enforced Disappearances.

PRESS RELEASE

 

30 years after the WGEID’s creation, stop the enforced disappearances!

 

 

Paris, March 3rd 2010

 

 

The Euro-Mediterranean Federation against Enforced Disappearances (FEMED)[1] welcomes the 30^th anniversary of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), created on February 29th 1980. The FEMED wants to underline how particular is the WGEID for the families of the disappeared. In fact, the main mission of this United Nations Special Procedure is to help the families to look into the circumstances of their relatives’ disappearance and where they are. The Working Group is, for many families, the only remedy in order to obtain the Truth from the governments. There are thousands of victims, from the euro-mediterranean region and from all around the world, who seize the WGEID to obtain information on their relative’ faith.

 

However, 30 years after the WGEID’s creation, several states do not recognize the enforced disappearances and this crime is still perpetrated with impunity. All over the world, the enforced disappearances are still hurting hundreds of thousands of persons who are waiting for the return of a brother, a grand-mother, an husband, a son…

 

To support these families, the FEMED is working in order to put an end to the enforced disappearances. In this idea, the FEMED is helping its members with the requests they are submitting to the WGEID. Furthermore, the Federation regularly informs the Working Group on the situation of the human rights defenders who are harassed for their struggle against enforced disappearances.

 

The 30th anniversary of the WGEID’s creation is also the occasion for the FEMED to recall the importance of the International Convention for the protection of all persons against enforced disappearances. This treaty, signed in Paris on February 6th 2007, establishes the rights to Truth and Justice for the victims of enforced disappearances. Also, it institutes a Committee which will be able to receive individual communications related to enforced disappearances. The FEMED calls upon all the euro-mediterranean States to ratify as soon as possible the Convention as it will ensure the non-repetition of the enforced disappearances.

 

 

For the FEMED’s Executive Committee

Nassera Dutour,

President