The Convention defines it as
the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty... followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law.
Or, in simpler terms, taking someone away in the middle of the night and refusing to say what has happened to them. Victims are frequently tortured or murdered, but there is no acknowledgement of their fate. They simply... disappear.
Further details can be found at Wikipedia.
The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is a UN human rights treaty. Its parties agree to outlaw enforced disappearance and prosecute those responsible for it found on their territory, cooperate with other states in ensuring that offenders are prosecuted or extradited, and establish minimum standards around imprisonment. It was opened for signature on 20 December 2006. So far, 73 states have signed.
The text of the treaty is here
New Zealand supported the adoption of the Convention by the UN General Assembly in 2006, but expressed concerns about the consistency of the Convention with international law. According to an MFAT spokesperson,
New Zealand's positon on the Convention continues to be that we support its adoption as it addresses a significant human rights issue and reflects the critical importance of this issue for certain regions in particular. A good demonstration that New Zealand does share the international community's condemnation of Enforced Disappearance is to recall in this context that New Zealand moved very early to criminalise Enforced Disappearance - in the International Crimes and International Criminal Court Act 2000.(Email, 5 August, 2008).
Despite these outward expressions of support, New Zealand has not signed the Convention, and in February 2007 an MFAT spokesperson said that there were "no immediate plans" to do so.
Enforced disappearance does not happen in New Zealand. But signing and ratifying the convention would
These are much the same reasons we signed the UN Convention Against Torture in 1986.
Every signature will help to show the government that New Zealanders care about human rights and want them to sign and ratify the Convention.
No Right Turn is one of New Zealand's top political blogs. It covers New Zealand and international politics from a left-wing perspective, with a particular focus on Parliament, elections, climate change and human rights. In addition to the usual commentary, it pokes into policy using the Official Information Act, and encourages citizen participation in government. This petition project is part of the latter.
Last modified: 04/08/2006.