A/72/53/Add.1 36/6. Enforced or involuntary disappearances The Human Rights Council, Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations, Reaffirming the relevant articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that protect the right of life, the right to liberty and security of person, the right not to be subjected to torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and the right to recognition as a person before the law, Recalling Commission on Human Rights resolution 20 (XXXVI) of 29 February 1980, in which the Commission decided to establish a working group of five members to serve as experts in their individual capacity and to examine questions relevant to enforced or involuntary disappearances, and also all previous resolutions on this subject, in particular Human Rights Council resolutions 7/12 of 27 March 2008 and 16/16 of 24 March 2011, in which the Council renewed by consensus the mandate of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, as well as Council decision 25/116 of 27 March 2014, and Council resolutions 21/4 of 27 September 2012 and 27/1 of 25 September 2014, Recalling also General Assembly resolution 47/133 of 18 December 1992, by which the Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance as a body of principles for States, Assembly resolution 61/177 of 20 December 2006, by which it adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which came into force on 23 December 2010, and Assembly resolution 70/160 of 17 December 2015, Recalling further that no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance and that no exceptional circumstance whatsoever may be invoked as justification for enforced disappearances, Welcoming the fact that 96 States have signed the Convention and that 57 States have ratified or acceded to it, and recognizing that its implementation is a significant contribution to ending impunity and to the promotion and protection of all human rights for all, Recalling the high-level meeting of the General Assembly held on 17 February 2017 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, an opportunity to review the positive impact of the Convention and to discuss ways and best practices to prevent enforced disappearances and to combat impunity by, inter alia, promoting the universal ratification of the Convention, Welcoming the launch by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of an international campaign for the universal ratification of the Convention, Deeply concerned in particular by the increase in enforced or involuntary disappearances in various regions of the world, including arrest, detention and abduction, when these are part of or amount to enforced disappearances, and by the growing number of reports concerning the harassment, ill-treatment and intimidation of witnesses of disappearances or relatives of disappeared persons, Recalling that the Convention sets out the right of victims to know the truth regarding the circumstances of the enforced disappearance, the progress and the result of the investigation and the fate of the disappeared person, provides for the guarantee of access to information concerning the whereabouts of the person deprived of liberty to any person with a legitimate interest in such information, and sets out obligations for the State party to take appropriate measures in this regard, Taking note with interest of the recommendation made by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances that more assistance should be provided to family members and members of civil society in order to enable them to report alleged cases of enforced disappearance to the Working Group, given that, in a large number of cases, the underreporting of cases of enforced disappearance remains a major problem owing to various reasons, including, inter alia, fear of reprisal, weak administration of justice, poverty and illiteracy, GE.17-18194 17