A/HRC/16/48
lessons learned from the 15-year review of the implementation of the Beijing Platform for
Action.
35.
On 25 May 2010, the Working Group issued a press release noting with concern the
suspension of Judge Baltasar Garzón of Spain by the General Council of the Judiciary for
having admitted and investigated a series of complaints submitted in 2006 regarding more
than 100,000 cases of enforced disappearances which occurred during the Spanish Civil
War and the Franco regime.
36.
On 12 July 2010, the Working Group issued a press release on the passing of
Patricio Rice, Coordinator of ICAED (International Coalition against Enforced
Disappearances), and co-founder and former Executive Secretary of FEDEFAM (Latin
American Federation of Associations of Families of Disappeared Detainees), himself a
survivor of enforced disappearance.
37.
On 22 July 2010, the Working Group issued a press release on the adoption of the
general comment on the right to the truth in relation to enforced disappearances. It did so to
focus the attention of States on the relevant obligations deriving from the Declaration on
the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance that flow from the right to the
truth.
38.
To commemorate the International Day of the Disappeared, the Working Group
issued a press release on 30 August 2010, expressing its wish that the United Nations
include it among the official observed days. The experts reiterated their solidarity with
victims, their families and others who work on the issue and called upon States to define
enforced disappearance as an autonomous criminal offence in their domestic legislation.
The Working Group also called upon States to take measures to promote truth and
reconciliation, which ought not to be used as a substitute for bringing perpetrators to
justice. The Working Group called upon Governments to sign and ratify the International
Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance and accept the
competence of the Committee-to-be under articles 31and 32 of the Convention. It noted that
only one more ratification or accession by a State Party was required for its entry into force.
G.
General comments
39.
In 2010, the Working Group adopted two general comments: on enforced
disappearance as a continuous crime and on the Right to the Truth in relation to enforced
disappearance.
General comment on enforced disappearance as a continuous crime
Preamble
“With a view to focusing the attention of States more effectively on the
relevant obligations deriving from the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons
from Enforced Disappearance, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary
Disappearances decided to adopt general comments on those provisions of the
Declaration that might need further explanation.
The following general comment complements its previous general comment
on article 17 of the Declaration regarding the interpretation of the continuous nature
of the crime of enforced disappearance.
Under international law, “The breach of an international obligation by an act
of a State having a continuing character extends over the entire period during which
the act continues and remains not in conformity with the international obligation”
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