
The International Crime of Enforced Disappearance:
Prevention, Accountability and Remedies
Peacemakers Trust directors and associates working on prevention of enforced disappearances:
Catherine Morris | Rebekah Smith
Research, writing and UN submissions, 2023
Project Summary
In 2023, Peacemakers Trust began a series of publications and submissions to the United Nations (UN) concerning the international crime of enforced disappearances, which affect hundreds of thousands of people in at least 85 countries. Peacemakers Trust is advocating that all countries join the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED, or Convention on Enforced Disappearance):
- The global problem of enforced disappearances: "Outside all protection of the law": Statement to the UN Human Rights Council, with Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, forthcoming September 2023
- "Unforgotten on the Day of the Disappeared," Slaw: Canada's Online Legal Magazine, 30 August 2023.
- Short-term enforced disappearances: "Every Minute Counts": Contribution to project of joint statement on the notion of short-term enforced disappearance by the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances, with Lawyers' Rights Watch Canada, 15 August 2023. See full .pdf submission.
- "Indigenous Peoples and enforced disappearances in Canada: Submission to the UN Human Rights Council for Canada's fourth Universal Periodic Review scheduled for November 2023. See a summary and link to the submission.
- "The Disappeared: Indigenous Peoples and the international crime of enforced disappearances," by Catherine Morris and Rebekah Smith, in Slaw: Canada's Online Legal Magazine, 20 March 2023, available online.