Saturday August 30th marks the 25th anniversary of the International Day of the Disappeared. On this day human rights organisations and family members of the disappeared from all over the world call on their Heads of State to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances.

Enforced disappearance is one of the most serious violations of human rights and it constitutes an international crime. The disappeared person is deprived of all his or her rights and he or she remains totally defenceless, in the hands of his or her torturers, outside the protection of the law. Enforced disappearance means by itself the denial of being human. The practice of enforced disappearance causes severe sufferings to the relatives and to the friends of the disappeared: the eternal wait for his or her return and the constant uncertainty about the fate and whereabouts of the loved one amount to a form of ongoing torture for mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, partners, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters of the disappeared person.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has registered roughly 46,000 cases of enforced disappearances around the globe.

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