On Wednesday morning December 20th the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations, meeting in New York, gave its unanimous approval to the text of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons against Enforced Disappearances.

It is an event for which the families of the disappeared in Latin America have been trying to achieve for 25 years. When the 1st Latin American Congress of Families of the Disappeared took place in January 1981 at San Jose, Costa Rica, it was the conviction among all participants, based on personal experience, that we were facing a new form of human rights violations for which, neither the international community nor the traditional judicial structure of each State, were prepared. The perversity of that new phenomenon resided in the refusal by the authorities to recognize detentions carried out by security forces and which resulted in the impossibility to ascertain information on their whereabouts or fate. And in an unstoppable wave the practice of enforced disappearances had extended to all corners of Latin America, not only to dictatorial States but also to formally democratic ones such as Mexico and Colombia.

It was moving at the San Jose encounter, meeting under the motto "No Pain is fruitless", to see the attitude of the families. Coming from very different ways of life, countries, social sectors and peoples, all embraced a common sentiment going beyond the solution to each individual case. They committed themselves to eliminating the practice of enforced disappearances "from the face of the earth".

Accordingly they took the first decisions of importance that had their first fruit in 1983, when FEDEFAM, thanks to the work of jurists Eduardo Novoa Monreal (Chile) and Alfredo Galletti (Argentina), presented its first draft for the Convention. However a long and tortuous road lay ahead until the approval in 1992 by the UN of the Declaration for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. Finally the Human Rights Commission in 2001 under the Chair of Leandro Despouy (Argentina) got the final stage under way which ended now with the approval of the text by the General Assembly.

We wish to underline in all this process the contribution of the families from other regions of the world, especially of AFAD (Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances). The voice of these relatives was a resounding response to those arguing that enforced disappearances only affect countries in Latin America.

On September 23rd 2005, Ambassador Kessedjian (France) who had been chairing the draft working group during three years, asked for the approval of the Convention. In a short speech he said that negotiations had ended, and that a decision had to be made. He requested its approval by consensus as afterwards each State can make their reservations or commentaries. There was silence in the meeting room. No one objected and the text of the new Convention was approved.

The road afterwards was much easier both in the Human Rights Council (June 2006) as well as in the Third Committee of the General Assembly (November 2006). It was now approved by consensus on the floor of the General Assembly itself.

The text approved notably enriches the initial project drafted by FEDEFAM. In it we find enshrined many rights which up to now never had been so clearly defined on an international level:
- The right not to be subjected to an enforced disappearance with all the obligations - and consequences for States.
- The right to truth, that is the right to know the truth about the fate of the person disappeared and all the circumstances about this crime.
- The right of the relatives to recover the remains of their loved ones.
- The establishment of guarantees towards the prohibition of all clandestine detentions no matter who the victim is nor in what circumstances was he/she taken.
- The right to justice of the families of the disappeared. This right has to be guaranteed through the inclusion in national penal law of the crime of forced disappearances.
- The practice of enforced disappearances constitute a crime against humanity.
A broad concept of victim is included that extends both to the relatives and close associates of the direct victim. Multiple aspects of the right to reparation are affirmed.
- The right of the child (enfant) victim to recover their identity is underlined.

An independent monitoring body will be established called the Committee on Enforced Disappearances with the authority and power of decision to investigate all urgent cases as one of its most noted characteristics.

A Call to Action

FEDEFAM wishes to emphasize that we are really enthusiastic about this new international instrument. We believe in it and we are convinced of its efficiency to achieve full protection against forced disappearances. FEDEFAM is committed to achieving that.

We call on all States to sign and ratify this Convention so that it can become operative as soon as possible (after the twentieth ratification). We are confident that it will have the support of many States in Africa, Asia and Europe as well as in Latin America as this Convention will be for them the first international instrument that establishes such obligations in their regions. 104 States have co-sponsored the Convention in the General Assembly, and we believe that each one will be able to sign and ratify it very soon. We will be looking for a hundred ratifications so that it will carry a decisive weight in international human rights affairs.

We exhort all States, NGOS and the media to promote and make the new Convention as well known as possible. We will be insisting that the Committee on Enforced Disappearances once established (we expect in 2008), will have at its disposal the necessary human and financial resources needed to carry out its task.

The 61st General Assembly of the UN took a historic decision by approving this international Convention. A world without enforced disappearances is now possible! A new step has been taken so that "NEVER AGAIN" can become reality.

Let us go forward to achieve that goal!

Until we find them!

FEDEFAM Gratitude

We are aware that by including this list we will leave out many people. We subsequently ask for their comprehension. But as this achievement was the result of the dedication of so many people which we would like to name as many as possible in gratitude.

Ambassador Bernard Kessedjian and team headed by Catherine Calothy (France).
Louis Joinet (France)
Manfred Novak (Austria)
Rodolfo Mattarrollo (Argentina)
Federico Andreu (Colombia), his antecessor Alejandro Artucio (Uruguay), and colleagues from the International Commission of Jurists.
Wilder Tyler (Uruguay() of Human Rights Watch
Adrien Zoeller (Switzerland)
Theo Van Boven (Holland)
Leandro Despouy (Argentina)
Horacio Ravenna (APDH Argentina)
Morris Tidball (Argentina)
Miguel Alfonso Martinez (Cuba)
International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
Ewoud Plate y Dave Hardy - Linking Solidarity (HOM) Holland.
Gabriela Citroni (Italia)
Aileen Bacalso (Philippines – AFAD).
Internacional Federaciуn of Human Rights(FIDH)
Oliver Laurent (FIDH) y el Yahoo E Grupo "Disparition")
Amnesty International
Federaciуn Internacional de la Acciуn Cristiana contra la Tortura (FIACAT)
Association for the Prevention of Torture (APT)
International Service for Human Rights among others.

Associations of Relatives:
AFAD (Asian Federation against Involuntary Disappearances) and member associations.
RADIF (African Network against Involuntary Disappearances) and member associations.
"We Remember" Foundation (Belarus)
Federation of Associations of Relatives of ex Yugoslavia (Croatia, Bosnia Herzegovina y Serbia).

States
We are in debt to France, the majority of members of GRULAC (Latin American and Caribbean Group) and all the States who have sponsored the Convention.
We especially highlight the commitment of governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay who believed in this project even in the most difficult times.