A/HRC/13/72 were cases of enforced disappearance.15 Most of these cases remain unsolved, and their perpetrators and motives unidentified. In the fight against criminal gangs, especially in Medellín, there have been a number of cases of enforced disappearance attributed to the National Police. 54. Victims of enforced disappearance continued to be primarily young, unemployed men from poor families, living in shanty towns or in isolated rural areas. The impact on their families, especially on those headed by women, including the suffering from not knowing the whereabouts of their loved ones, has been tortuous. 55. The Attorney General’s Office has continued conducting exhumations.16 By December 2009, under Law 975 (2005), there were 2,520 cases of enforced disappearance, out of a total of 35,664 crimes confessed. As a result, 2,388 graves with 2,901 bodies have been found. However, the identification and return of the remains and bodies continued to be very slow: 910 have been fully identified, of which 796 have been handed over to the families. 56. Investigations prior to the exhumation process are essential to determine the circumstances of the events and identify the victims. However, it is difficult to ensure full participation of the victims’ family in the proceedings, as the identity of the person to be exhumed is usually unknown. This requires improved institutional coordination between the Attorney General’s Office and national institutions responsible for the search for disappeared persons, in order to exchange and cross-reference all available information. OHCHR-Colombia welcomes the efforts made during 2009 and notes that there is still a long way to go before relatives can fully participate in these processes. 57. The Law to Respect, Locate and Identify Victims of Enforced Disappearance, adopted in November 2009, is a step forward in the recognition of victims’ rights. OHCHRColombia further welcomes the initial steps taken by the Senate towards the integral and prompt ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which will require aligning national legislation to international standards. I. Illegal armed groups which emerged after demobilization of paramilitary organizations 58. Across the country, OHCHR-Colombia notes with great concern the expansion, increasing activities and violence against civilians perpetrated by illegal armed groups that emerged after the demobilization of paramilitary organizations. 59. Among the violent acts perpetrated by these groups in 2009, there were massacres, selective murders, threats, forced displacement and sexual violence. Victims include social leaders, indigenous and Afro-Colombian persons as well as local public officials, in particular if they were involved in processes of restitution of lands or if they controlled public resources. The attacks have targeted those who resisted the demands of these groups, possessed property of interest to a particular group, were seen as collaborating with or belonging to other groups, or happened to be in an area of dispute between rival groups. There are also a number of demobilized persons among victims, due to a “settling of personal scores” or for refusing to join these groups. 15 16 12 National Registry of Disappeared Persons, December 2009. The National Unit for Justice and Peace coordinates exhumations ordered by prosecutors at the national level, through the Virtual Center for Identification (CUVI). GE.10-11819