“The lack of truth and justice for thousands of missing persons remains a serious human rights issue in Europe. So many families of missing persons in Council of Europe member states, including in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bosnia and Herzegovina and other countries in the Balkans, Cyprus, Georgia, Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom, the Russian Federation, Spain, Turkey and Ukraine have been demanding to know the whereabouts of their loved ones for years, sometimes even decades. Enforced disappearances are still happening at this moment on our continent”, said today Commissioner Mijatović ahead of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances
“I call on European states to hear the victims’ relatives. European states concerned by this problem must search for missing persons with more resolve, investigate what happened to them, punish those responsible, acknowledge the suffering of relatives of victims of enforced disappearances and of missing persons, and cater to their needs.
To this end, it would be a crucial first step to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance. Regrettably, to date, only 22 members of the Council of Europe have ratified it, most of which are not countries directly concerned by this problem.
Establishing the truth is a matter of justice. States must no longer procrastinate on this legal and moral duty.”
