A/HRC/13/31 Number of cases on which the Government has replied 0 Multiple replies on some cases Number of cases of possible clarification by Government (6month rule) N/A 0 General allegation Yes Government response No Prompt intervention letter N/A Government response N/A Working Group request for a visit N/A Government response N/A General allegations Summary of the allegations 559. Information was submitted by sources concerning obstacles reportedly encountered in the implementation of the Declaration. This information was transmitted to the Government after the Working Group’s eighty-seventh session. 560. According to the reports, in 2004 the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was involved in a practice of renditions and secret detention. Victims of rendition were generally held in prolonged incommunicado detention in secret facilities, with no access to the ICRC, no notification to families and no notification of their legal status and rights. There was no oversight of the conditions of detention and the treatment of the detainees. There was also no information about the procedures in place to decide about their detention and its duration. This practice is believed to amount to enforced disappearance. 561. The role of the Government in this practice allegedly included the detention of persons inside its territory and their extrajudicial transfer overseas or to the custody of foreign intelligence agencies or others. 562. According to reports received, the Government of the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was reluctant to investigate thoroughly allegations of enforced disappearance connected to renditions. The Government reportedly failed to undertake effective, independent and impartial investigation into the role of state officials and the use of state territory in connection with enforced disappearance. No remedies have been provided for the victims and their families, which includes, in some cases, the establishment of the fate and whereabouts of people who have disappeared. 563. The Working Group regrets that no response was received from the Government. Observations 564. The Working Group notes that the Government has signed the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and calls upon the Government to ratify it and accept the competence of the Committee under articles 31 and 32. GE.09-17704 115