A/HRC/39/46 45. On 26 January 2018, the Working Group issued a press release calling on Egypt to halt all pending executions following repeated allegations of death sentences handed out on the basis of evidence obtained through torture or ill-treatment, often during a period of enforced disappearance.18 46. On 9 February 2018, at the conclusion of its 114th session, the Working Group issued a press release.19 47. On 23 March 2018, the Working Group issued a press release, jointly with other mandate holders, expressing concern about the health of human rights lawyer Jiang Tianyong jailed in China.20 48. On 30 April 2018, the Working Group issued a press release, jointly with other special procedure mechanisms, expressing concern at the trial of four men in Bahrain that reportedly breached fair trial and due process guarantees, including confessions obtained under torture.21 G. Interim report on standards and public policies for an effective investigation of enforced disappearances 1. Introduction 49. Enforced disappearances differ from other crimes against a person’s liberty because of the participation of the State (directly or with its support or acquiescence) and the denial of such a deprivation of liberty or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the victim. This generates impunity and harms the relatives of the disappeared, who are also considered victims of the crime, in a particular way. 22 50. Faced with this reality, and its recurrence (even systematically and in a generalized way), in different parts of the world, international human rights law has been slowly building a legal framework to protect against enforced disappearances. One of the first developments in this direction was the obligation of States to investigate disappearances effectively, exhaustively and impartially, as established by international human rights instruments. 51. This obligation has been developed through the jurisprudence of both international bodies and national courts, as well as the practice of different States. Currently, the obligation to investigate also has a strong normative basis in the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance23 and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. 24 52. However, the question of how to implement this obligation (i.e. based on which standards or through which public policies or institutions) deserves to be studied carefully and comparatively, in order to recognize good practices and be able to detect negative experiences. 53. As has been described in the updated set of principles to combat impunity, an effective policy to combat impunity requires a multifaceted strategy, with each component playing a necessary but only partial role (see E/CN.4/2004/88, para. 10). 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22588&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22613&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22653&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=22890&LangID=E. See www.ohchr.org/en/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=23010&LangID=E. See art. 24 (1) of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. See art. 13, which establishes the right “to complain to a competent and independent State authority and to have that complaint promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigated by that authority” for any person having knowledge or a legitimate interest who alleges that a person has been subjected to enforced disappearance. See art. 12. 7