A/HRC/42/40/Add.2
is paid as long as the victim retains his or her status of missing person; the payments are
terminated when the location, place of burial or location of the remains of the missing person
is clarified. Relatives are entitled then to seek a survivor’s pension on a general ground in
accordance with the general legislation on State pensions. This scheme for supporting
relatives of disappeared persons does not conform with the definition of a reparation in the
Declaration and the Convention, which, once again, has priority over the newly adopted law.
58.
The relevant State authorities may consider looking for guidance in the study of the
Working Group on enforced and involuntary disappearances and economic, social and
cultural rights, in which it highlighted the fact that the right to obtain redress for acts of
enforced disappearances includes medical and psychological care, and guarantees of
employment or property (A/HRC/30/38/Add.5, para. 59). In its general comment on article
19 of the Declaration, the Working Group established a broad interpretation of the right to
obtain redress for acts of enforced disappearance, including medical and psychological care
and rehabilitation for any form of physical or mental damage, and to legal and social
rehabilitation, guarantees of non-repetition, restoration of personal liberty, family life,
citizenship, employment or property, return to one’s place of residence and similar forms of
restitution, satisfaction and reparation that might remove the consequences of the enforced
disappearance (E/CN.4/1998/43, para. 75). 13 If a person is subjected to enforced
disappearance, States have an obligation to provide prompt, adequate and effective reparation
to all those who have suffered harm as a result of the disappearance.
59.
The Working Group also stresses that, for the purpose of reparation, the definition of
a victim of enforced disappearance is broad, and includes a disappeared person as well as
anyone who suffers direct harm as a result of the disappearance. The approach taken by the
law differs in that a survivor’s pension may be awarded only to relatives of the disappeared
person listed explicitly in the law.
5.
Prevention
(i)
Awareness-raising, training and human rights education
60.
In order to prevent the recurrence of enforced disappearances, it is essential to
properly educate present and future generations, and to provide society in general, and civil
servants in particular, with adequate human rights training. The Working Group emphasizes
the importance of including the necessary education and information regarding the relevant
provisions of the Declaration in training given to law enforcement personnel, civil or military,
public officials and other persons who may be involved in the custody or treatment of any
person deprived of liberty. Professional training for judges, prosecutors and lawyers is also
essential.
(ii) Registration of deprivation of liberty
61.
According to article 10 (3) of the Declaration, an official up-to-date register of all
persons deprived of their liberty should be maintained in every place of detention and all
States should take steps to maintain centralized registers. The Working Group noted that such
a centralized system does not yet exist in Ukraine, although it did observe that a bill
addressing that issue would shortly be tabled in Parliament. The Working Groups also notes
the additional information provided by the Government about the adoption, on 6 September
2017, of resolution No. 608 creating the Unified Register of Sentenced and Remanded
Prisoners, and that the software for the Unified Register would be completed, with
subsequent training for staff on how to administer the register. The beginning of a full-scale
operation of the register is scheduled for 1 September 2019.
62.
As also noted by the Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the system for transferring detainees also
appears to have gaps in terms of registration and of detainees’ contact with lawyers and the
outside world, especially in the case of individuals accused of crimes in connection with the
conflict in the East (CAT/OP/UKR/1, paras. 49-52).
13
See also A/HRC/22/45, paras. 46–47.
13
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