FEMED is a founding member and member of the Steering Committee of the International Coalition.

against enforced disappearances : www.icaed.org

The road to the adoption of the Convention was long and arduous. Organizations of families of the disappeared, human rights NGOs, experts and a number of States worked for over 25 years to achieve the adoption by the UN General Assembly of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

In 1981, the Human Rights Institute of the Paris Bar organized a symposium to discuss the promotion of an international convention on disappearances. In the same spirit, in 1980-1983, families of the disappeared in Latin America drew up a draft text for a convention, which was presented to the UN.

A first draft of the instrument was presented by the Sub-Commission on Human Rights in 1988. It was not until 1992 that the United Nations General Assembly finally adopted the Declaration for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.

In 2001, the former Commission on Human Rights began negotiations on a text that would later become the Convention. The process came to a successful conclusion on September 23, 2005, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. French Ambassador Bernard Kessedjian, then Chairman/Rapporteur of the Working Group charged for three years with drafting a "legally binding instrument for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance", requested approval of the text of the Convention.

No State objected, and the text of the new Convention was approved. The text was subsequently unanimously approved by the Human Rights Council (June 2006), the Third Committee of the General Assembly (November 2006) and the General Assembly itself (December 20, 2006). One hundred and three States co-sponsored the text at the General Assembly.

Following the adoption of the text by the General Assembly, the new objective became the rapid ratification and implementation of the Convention in as many countries as possible. Indeed, despite the unanimous approval by the General Assembly and the high number of co-authors, the position of many States towards the Convention remains ambiguous.

For this reason, civil society organizations hoping for rapid ratification will need to unite their efforts to transform the Convention into an effective instrument against disappearances. All those with an interest in the Convention's success are aware that their power can grow with their numbers, and that the legitimacy and credibility of lobbying and campaigning activities can be greatly enhanced by a collective show of strength.

This is why the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances was created. Its main immediate objective is to promote the rapid ratification and full and effective implementation of the Convention. In the future, the Coalition may decide to extend its action to other themes concerning the eradication of enforced disappearances.