A/HRC/13/31 645. The Working Group continues to express its concern over the growing number of cases of enforced disappearances around the world. 646. The Working Group continues to be concerned about measures being taken while addressing terrorism and its implications for enforced disappearances. These include the enactment of legislation that restricts personal freedoms and weakens due process, random arrests committed during military operations, arbitrary detentions and extraordinary renditions, which amount to enforced disappearances. The Working Group calls upon States to take legislative, judicial and administrative or other measures to deal with this issue. The Working Group would like to reiterate its general comment on article 10 of the Declaration which states that “under no circumstances, including states of war or public emergency, can any State interests be invoked to justify or legitimize secret centres or places of detention which, by definition, would violate the Declaration, without exception”. 647. The Working Group is concerned that in many instances the military forces are allegedly responsible for many cases of enforced disappearance. 648. The Working Group reminds States that enforced disappearance is a continuing offence and a continuous human rights violation for as long as the fate or whereabouts of the victim remains unclarified. States therefore should bear this in mind when enacting statutes of limitation. 649. The Working Group calls upon States to take specific legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances. States should also take specific measures under their criminal law to define enforced disappearances as an autonomous criminal offence and to bring their existing legislation in line with the Declaration. 650. The Working Group notes that in certain parts of the world impunity for enforced disappearance remains a problem. For this reason, the Working Group reminds States of their obligations under the Declaration to prevent impunity by taking lawful and appropriate steps to bring to justice those alleged to have committed enforced disappearances. The Working Group calls upon States to prosecute individuals who have committed enforced disappearances by competent ordinary courts at all stages of the legal process. 651. In the general comment that it adopted this year, the Working Group recognized “that the definition given by Article 7(1) of the Statute of the International Criminal Court now reflects customary international law and can thus be used to interpret and apply the provisions of the Declaration”. It calls on States, competent international organizations and tribunals to fully acknowledge this conclusion and draw all the legal consequences flowing from it. 652. The Working Group would like to emphasize the right to truth, which should be enjoyed by all victims of enforced disappearance. The Working Group recommends that States adopt measures to promote truth and reconciliation in their societies, as a means of implementing the right to truth and the right to integral reparation of victims of enforced disappearances. Based on its experience, the Working Group acknowledges that such processes are often crucial to prevent repetition of enforced disappearances and to clarify cases, by uncovering the truth of the fate or the whereabouts of disappeared persons. However, the Working Group underlines that reconciliation between the State and the victims of enforced disappearance cannot happen without the clarification of each individual case. The Working Group also stresses that measures taken to promote reconciliation should not be used as a substitute for bringing perpetrators to justice, in accordance with the principles provided for in the general comment on article 18. 134 GE.09-17704