Guide to access the Committee on Enforced Disappearances

On this page, you will find guidance to access the Committee on Enforced Disappearences for individual communications in Refugee and Asylum cases.

How to make an individual application alleging a violation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances + -

The Committee on Enforced Disappearances monitors the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances (ICPED) thanks to its Article 31 allowing individuals to submit complaints against States responsible for an alleged violation of their rights. Only States that have filed a declaration under Article 31 can receive individual complaints.

26 States have filed a declaration. The list of States can be found here.

Individuals claiming to be a victim of a violation of the ICPED by a State Party. It is therefore the individual (or a group of individuals) or his (their) representative that must file the complaint.

A complaint can also be submitted on behalf of a victim (or group of victims). The Convention includes victims in a wide manner, which encompasses a person who disappeared and “any individual who has suffered harm as the direct result of an enforced disappearance” (Article 24 ICPED). It therefore includes relatives.

See Article 31(1) of the ICPED and Rule 64 of the 2024 Rules of Procedure.

See Article 2 of the Optional Protocol and Rule 12 of the 2022 Rules of Procedure.

The Committee can only deal with the rights contained in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances. It includes a number of rights, such as:

  • Right not to be subjected to an enforced disappearance (Article 1).
  • Right to report an alleged enforced disappearance to State authorities (Article 12).
  • Principle of non-refoulement (Article 16).
  • Right not to be secretly detained (Article 17(1)).
  • Right to have access to information about the person deprived of liberty (Article 18).
  • Right to know the truth (Article 24(2)).
  • State obligation to search for the disappeared person (Article 24(3)).

The Convention has an explicit provision on non-refoulement in Article 16 ICPED. The Committee has also published General Comment No.1 (2023) on enforced disappearances in the context of migration. 

  • Anonymity and abuse of right

The Committee does not consider anonymous submissions and those that constitute an abuse of right (Article 31(2)(a) & (b) ICPED).

  • Exhaustion of domestic remedies

An individual should first seek protection by  the national courts. The Committee is considered a body of last-resort and can therefore only be sought once the complainant has exhausted all effective available domestic remedies

The rule on domestic remedies does not apply if the remedies are unreasonable prolonged.  (Article 31(2)(d) ICPED).

  • No time-limit.

There is no explicit time limit regarding the time elapsed since the exhaustion of domestic remedies to file complaint before the Committee. 

  • Examination of the complaint by another procedure

The complaint will not be considered if it has been previously materially assessed by another procedure of international investigation or settlement (regional human rights Court or other human rights Bodies) ( Article  31(2)(c) ICPED).

An enforced disappearance reported to the Working Group on Enforced Disappearance can also be the subject of an individual complaint brought before the Committee on Enforced Disappearance under Article 31 ICPED.

How to request interim measures to be taken to avoid irreparable damage under Article 31 ICPED

In addition to individual communications, the Committee can order interim measures in order to avoid “irreparable damage to the victim”. This can be requested at any time during the proceedings, before a determination on the merits has been reached.

The ordering of interim measures does not imply a determination on the admissibility or the merits of the case.

Failure to respect these measures will be incompatible with the obligation to respect in good faith the procedure of individual communication.

See Article 31(5) ICPED and Rule 68 of the 2024 Rules of Procedure.

Interim measures outside of individual complaints before the Committee

In the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, there is another possibility for the Committee to order interim measures in cases of urgent situation to locate or protect a person (Article 30(3)). This is part of the urgent action procedure.

Urgent Action procedure under Article 30 do not require a State to file a declaration. This is applicable to all State that have ratified ICPED. It concerns 76 States, the list of states can be found here.

For the request for urgent action to be admissible,

  • it must not constitute an abuse of right and be manifestly unfounded
  • it must not have been examined by another procedure of humanitarian mandate (such as the Working Group on Enforced Disappearances)
  • it must not constitute an abuse of right
  • it must have been presented to the competent authorities of the State party, such as those authorized to undertake investigations.

  • See Article 30(2) ICPED and Rule 62(1) of the 2024 Rules of Procedure.

The interim measure under Article 30 can also be to protect a complainant, witnesses, the disappeared person’s relatives and defence counsel, and other persons participating in the investigation, and to protect relevant pieces of evidence (Rule 62(2)(c) of the 2024 Rules of Procedure).

Important considerations

Complaints must only address matters that have happened after the Declaration issued by the State concerned under Article 31 (Article 35 ICPED).

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Last updated March 2025