Enforced Disappearances

EDM number 294 in 2017-19, proposed by Ann Clwyd on 07/09/2017.
Categorised under the topics of Human rights and International politics and government.

That this House is concerned by continued enforced disappearances around the world, used frequently as a strategy to spread fear, and the effects such disappearances have on families, communities and wider society; is further concerned for the tens of thousands of Syrians who remain unaccounted for under President Assad's regime; notes the disappearance of 28-year old Argentinian human rights activist Santiago Maldonado, last seen being arrested during a protest for indigenous groups in Patagonia in August 2017; further notes reported enforced disappearances in Rwanda in the lead up for the 2017 Presidential elections in that country, including the disappearance of opposition activist Illuminée Iragena in March 2016; notes the disappearance of Porlajee "Billy" Rakchongcharoen, an ethnic minority Karen human rights defender, who was last seen in the custody of Kaeng Krachan National Park officials in April 2014; recalls the UN's categorisation of enforced disappearances as a crime; welcomes the opportunity that International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30 August provides to reaffirm a commitment to ending impunity for the crime of enforced disappearance and to promote accountability; and calls on the Government to mark this day by ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and by urging other governments to ratify and fully implement that Convention.

This motion has been signed by a total of 26 MPs.