The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted on December 20, 2006, imposes obligations on States parties to protect all persons from enforced disappearance and to combat impunity for the crime of enforced disappearance. The main obligations are set out in Part I of the Convention (articles 1-25). The Convention provides for a mechanism for the submission and consideration of individual complaints. States parties may make a declaration under article 31 recognizing the competence of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, a group of 10 independent experts that meets twice a year, to consider complaints from individuals under their jurisdiction about alleged violations by the State concerned of their rights under the Convention.
The Committee is competent to consider only those enforced disappearances that began after the entry into force of the Convention. In the event that a State became a party to the Convention after its entry into force, that State's obligations to the Committee relate only to those enforced disappearances that began after the entry into force of the Convention for that State.
The Committee should be distinguished from the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, a body of five independent experts established in 1980 by the then United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The Working Group examines cases of enforced disappearances that have allegedly occurred in any part of the world. However, unlike the Committee, the main mandate of the Working Group is not to monitor the implementation of the Convention in States parties, but to assist relatives in determining the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared family members.