A/HRC/13/31 II. Activities of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances: 5 December 2008 to 13 November 2009 A. Activities 10. During the period under review, the Working Group held three sessions: the eightyseventh session, from 9 to 13 March, in Geneva, the eighty-eighth from 26 to 28 June, in Rabat, Morocco, and the eighty-ninth from 4 to 13 November 2009, in Geneva. 11. Since 1 August 2009, the Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group is Jeremy Sarkin. The other members are Santiago Corcuera, Olivier de Frouville, Darko Göttlicher and Osman El-Hajjé, who was appointed in 2009. El-Hajjé took over from Saied Lhorasani who was a member until 31 July 2009. 12. On 10 March 2009, the Chairman-Rapporteur presented the Working Group’s annual report for 2008 to the tenth session of the Council and participated in the interactive dialogue with its member States. 13. On 5 February 2009, the Secretariat of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances participated in a conference titled “Conference on the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance” organized by the Colegio de España, the Maison de l’Argentine and the Maison de l’Italie at the Cité internationale universitaire, in Paris. 14. On 26 and 27 February 2009, Olivier de Frouville, member of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, participated in a meeting on “governance: individual rights, economic development and social progress” organized by the Amadeus Institute in Marrakech, Morocco. As a result, a call for the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance is included in the final commitment, the “Marrakech Engagement”. On 10 March 2009, he delivered a presentation during an event held in parallel with the tenth session of the Human Rights Council on “Secret detentions – strategies to end this practice” to launch a joint study on this issue together with other special procedures mechanisms. 15. The Chairperson attended, from 29 June to 3 July 2009, the sixteenth annual meeting of special rapporteurs, representatives, independent experts and chairpersons of working groups of the Council. 16. On 11 and 12 August 2009, Mr. Corcuera participated in the “Seminario Internacional Sobre Desaparición Forzada en América Latina – Pasos Hacia la Construcción de la Memoria Histórica” organized by the University of Antioquia in Medellín, Colombia. 17. In September and October 2009, Jeremy Sarkin delivered lectures and statements on the following topics: “Enforced disappearances in Africa”, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation workshop, Cape Town, South Africa; “Rehabilitation and reintegration of war-affected children: a transitional justice perspective on the need to achieve rehabilitation, reintegration and reconciliation for child soldiers and child victims of enforced disappearances”, International Conference on Rehabilitation and Reintegration of War-Affected Children, Brussels; and “Transitional justice” as well as “Enforced disappearances”, International Human Rights Academy, Cape Town, South Africa. GE.09-17704 7