NUJU participates in UN CED meeting: ways to solve issues

The National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU), the largest organization uniting journalists and creative workers from all over the country, took part in the 27^th session of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances on September 23. The purpose of NUJU‘s participation was to draw the attention of the Committee, the international community and national organizations to the need for immediate decision-making and active action for a quick and effective solution to the critical problem of missing persons. During the session, a public dialogue was also held between the Committee’s experts and representatives of national human rights organizations and civil society organizations involved in and contributing to solving the problem of enforced disappearances, in particular, during active hostilities in the territory of Ukraine.

Media lawyer and NUJU representative Danil Serbin, during his speech at the Committee meeting, voiced NUJU‘s consistent position on the issue of enforced disappearances and also suggested possible ways to solve the problems.

Danil Serbin emphasized the need to apply mechanisms of responsibility and bring the perpetrators to justice for crimes committed under the norms of international and domestic law.

One of the main theses voiced was the inefficient activity of state bodies in the investigation of crimes related to the forcible kidnapping of people and deprivation of their liberty, the provision of insufficient and incomplete information to the relatives and relatives of the missing person, the creation of artificial obstacles to the investigation into crimes and the execution of procedural actions, locating missing persons, etc.

Danil Serbin also drew attention to the fact that Ukrainian legislation uses different terms to designate missing persons. Thus, Ukrainian legislation has different terms – in particular, “missing person” and “absent-missing.” Such differences often affect the procedural aspects of missing persons cases and the scope of rights and guarantees provided by law for such persons. To solve this problem, it was proposed to harmonize the legislation and unify the terminological designations used in the legislation. In particular, use the term mentioned in the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, namely “disappeared person.”

The representative of the NUJU also drew attention to the fact that there are currently many bodies that deal with the issue of missing persons under special circumstances, which collect and record information about them. The distribution of relevant functions among a significant number of such bodies is designed to ensure effective work in searching for missing persons, but in fact, due to the large number of subjects entering information, there are certain problems with filling and further maintenance, updating of information in the Register. How to solve the problem? It was proposed to identify a single body that would be vested with exclusive authority to collect, process, and systematize all information about captives.

NUJU also prepared and forwarded to the Committee an extensive written report on the issues surrounding the topic of enforced disappearances and proposed ways to resolve them. It is hoped that the Committee will take NUJU‘s contribution into consideration in its further course of action. The Union, for its part, guarantees involvement in the process of provision of all necessary information and materials to achieve the set goal.

Reference information. The Committee on Enforced Disappearances is a body of independent experts responsible for monitoring the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances by participating states.

NUJU Information Service