United Nations
General Assembly
A/HRC/WGEID/119/1*
Distr.: General
2 December 2019
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances
Communications transmitted, cases examined, observations
made and other activities conducted by the Working Group
on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances**
119th session (16–20 September 2019)
I. Communications
1.
Between its 118th and 119th sessions, the Working Group transmitted 60 cases
under its urgent action procedure, to: Bangladesh (2), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1),
Cameroon (1), China (2), Egypt (31), Pakistan (9), Rwanda (1), Saudi Arabia (2), Syrian
Arab Republic (2), Thailand (1), Turkey (1), Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (6) and
Viet Nam (1).
2.
At its 119th session, the Working Group decided to transmit 222 newly reported
cases of enforced disappearance to nine States: Burundi (37), China (24), Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea (34), Egypt (12), Libya (2), Pakistan (35), Sri Lanka (36),
Syrian Arab Republic (41) and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (1).
3.
The Working Group also clarified 110 cases, in: Bangladesh (1), China (1),
Colombia (20), Egypt (55), India (1), Pakistan (16), Saudi Arabia (5), Thailand (4), Turkey
(6) and Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) (1). A total of 87 cases were clarified on the
basis of information provided by the Governments and 23 on the basis of information
provided by sources.
4.
Between its 118th and 119th sessions, the Working Group transmitted 16
communications, either individually or jointly with other special procedure mechanisms:
five urgent appeals, to China (3), India (1) and Iran (Islamic Republic of) (1); two prompt
intervention letters to Pakistan; seven allegation letters, to China (1), Brazil (1), Cameroon
(1), Egypt (2), Tunisia (1) and Paraguay (1); and two “other letters”, to Guatemala (1) and
Nepal (1).1
5.
On 4 June 2019, the Working Group, together with other special procedure
mechanisms, issued a press release condemning attacks on reintegrated former combatants
* Reissued for technical reasons on 24 March 2020.
** The annexes to the present document are reproduced as received, in the languages of submission only.
1
Such communications are made public 60 days after their transmission to the State, along with
responses received from the Government, if any, and are available from
https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/Tmsearch/TMDocuments.
GE.19-20664(E)