New Committee on Disappearances elected

Congratulations to the new members of the Committee on Disappearances, elected yesterday (May 31st) in the first state parties meeting under the Convention on Enforced Disappearances that went into effect last December.

The new members of the Committee are:

Name	Nationality	Term expires
Mr. Mohammed AL-OBAIDI	Iraq	2013
Mr. Mamadou Badio CAMARA	Senegal	2015
Mr. Emmanuel DECAUX	France	2015
Mr. Alvaro GARCÉ GARCÍA Y SANTOS	Uruguay	2015
Mr. Luciano HAZAN	Argentina	2013
Mr. Rainer HUHLE	Germany	2013
Ms. Suela JANINA	Albania	2015
Mr. Juan José LÓPEZ ORTEGA	Spain	2015
Mr. Enoch MULEMBE	Zambia	2013
Mr. Kimio YAKUSHIJI	Japan	2013

More information can be accessed at the OHCHR website. The Committee will now schedule its first organizational meeting later in the year. I have not yet seen any information on when this meeting might occur.

The Committee represents the 11th treaty body now in the UN human rights system. As noted in the excerpt from the treaty included above, it will look into cases of enforced or arbitrary disappearances arising after the effective date of the Convention.