Islamabad: The United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will make its first visit to Pakistan during September 10-20 at the invitation of the government amidst calls from rights groups for tracing hundreds of “missing persons”.
During its visit, the UN experts will gather information on cases of enforced disappearances pending before the Working Group.
They will study measures adopted by the Pakistan government to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances, including issues related to truth, justice and reparation for victims of such actions.
The Working Group will visit various parts of Pakistan and meet federal and provincial officials, representatives of civil society groups, relatives of disappeared persons and representatives of UN agencies.
The Working Group will be represented by Olivier de Frouville, the chair-rapporteur, and Osman El-Hajjé, said a statement from the UN.
The five independent experts from across the world will be accompanied by members of the Secretariat of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A final report on the mission will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council next year. Rights groups have alleged that hundreds of activists of national groups have been detained without charge by intelligence and security agencies in the restive Balochistan province.
Over 200 bodies of “missing persons”, most of them bullet-riddled and bearing marks of torture, have been found in Balochistan since last year. Similar allegations have been recorded in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province that were affected by activities of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan.
The UN Working Group was established by the UN Commission on Human Rights in 1980 to assist families to determine the fate and whereabouts of disappeared relatives.
It endeavours to establish a channel of communication between families and governments to ensure that individual cases are investigated, with the objective of clarifying the whereabouts of persons who, having disappeared, are placed outside the protection of the law. (PTI)
