In issuing its findings, the Committee on Enforced Disappearances — a bunch of 10 independent experts that monitors States’ adherence to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance — additionally noticed that revictimization prevails in such scenarios.
The Committee called on Iraq to integrate the offence of enforced disappearance to its national criminal laws and also to make sure that no individual has been held in secret detention.
To be certain, the Committee also welcomed that Iraq setup two investigative committees, in 2016 and 2018, to tackle enforced disappearances committed in the nation. In Addition, it hailed the building of this Bill on the Protection of Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which is now before the Council of Ministers.
It advocated that Iraq update the invoice, according to the International Convention, also in consultation with stakeholders, including civil society.
Lack of Information
Committee specialists are also concerned by the absence of reliable data on cases of enforced disappearance and the massive quantity of unknown bodies and mass graves. It advocated Iraq set a combined nationwide database of cases of disappearance which have happened in the nation since 1968.
For its role, the Committee stated it’s received allegations about around 420 secret detention websites. It encouraged that the State party to explore thoroughly the allegations, and to close any facilities or convert them to routine enrolled and supervised detention centers, and to carry all necessary steps to make sure no one is arrested secretly in the long run.
Pros on board
The Committee is composed of 10 associates that are independent human rights specialists drawn from across the world, who serve in their private capacity rather than as agents of States parties. The Committee’s concluding observations have been an independent evaluation of States’ compliance with their human rights responsibilities under the treaty.
