UN Committee On Enforced Disappearances Publishes Findings On Belgium, Central African Republic, Gambia, Malta & Serbia

Geneva, 8 April 2025

The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) today issued its findings on Belgium, Central African Republic, Gambia, Malta, and Serbia, after reviewing the five States parties during its latest session.

The findings contain the Committee’s main concerns and recommendations on the implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, as well as positive aspects.

Belgium:

The Committee welcomed the introduction of a pilot digital register of people deprived of their liberty, and the steps taken since 2022, toward establishing a centralized system. It however, remained concerned about the absence of a unified register across federal and local police districts. The Committee urged the State party to expedite the adoption of the royal decree on the centralized register of people deprived of liberty.

The Committee recommended that Belgium strengthen the investigation into the alleged illegal intercountry adoptions, to determine whether some of these adoptions originated in enforced disappearances and punish those responsible.

Central African Republic:

The Committee welcomed the inclusion of enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity in the country’s Criminal Code. It recommended that the State party take steps, without delay, to make enforced disappearance an autonomous offence in national legislation, and incorporate all the mitigating and aggravating circumstances, as well as the appropriate penalties that take into account the extreme seriousness of the crime.

The Committee recommended that the State party ensure that the authorities implement prompt, thorough and impartial search and investigation procedures in all reported cases of enforced disappearance, and to ensure the participation and information of all people with a legitimate interest, at all stages of the procedure.

The Gambia:

While acknowledging the State party’s efforts to harmonize the national legislation with the Convention, the Committee was concerned about the compliance of these reforms with the Convention. It urged the Gambia to ensure that enforced disappearance is incorporated into national legislation as an autonomous offence and as a crime against humanity and punished with appropriate penalties, given its extreme seriousness.

It recommended that the State party ensure that all disappeared people whose fate is not yet known are searched for and located; all allegations of enforced disappearance, including those that occurred after the end of the Jammeh regime, are investigated effectively and impartially; and that the relatives of disappeared people can participate in these processes.

Malta:

The Committee was concerned that Malta has not established enforced disappearance as an autonomous offence in its national law. While the country criminalizes enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity, the existing legal framework does not fully encompass all elements of the offence as defined by the Convention. It urged the State party to incorporate enforced disappearance as an autonomous crime.

The Committee highlighted the absence of comprehensive measures to protect unaccompanied minors from enforced disappearance, particularly in migration contexts. The Committee urged the State Party to establish specialized mechanisms to prevent and investigate such disappearances.

Serbia:

The Committee recommended that Serbia criminalize enforced disappearance as an autonomous offense, revise penalties and statutes of limitations to reflect its gravity and expand victim definitions to ensure inclusivity and full reparation for all affected individuals.

It was concerned about Serbia’s refusal to extradite citizens sought by Kosovo’s judicial authorities and the classification of key military and police archives, hindering investigations. The Committee recommended that the State party prioritize bilateral and multilateral efforts to reactivate cooperation frameworks, ensure public access to archives, resume dialogue with Kosovo to implement the Declaration on Missing Persons signed between Kosovo and Serbia in 2023.

As of today, the Committee has registered a total of 2011 urgent actions cases, which are requests to States parties to immediately search for, locate and protect a disappeared person.

During the session, the Committee also decided to activate the procedure of article 34 of the Convention for Mexico, under which , “if the Committee receives information which appears to it to contain well-founded indications that enforced disappearance is being practiced on a widespread or systematic basis in the territory under the jurisdiction of a State Party, it may, after seeking from the State Party concerned all relevant information on the situation, urgently bring the matter to the attention of the General Assembly of the United Nations, through the Secretary-General of the United Nations”.

In his closing remarks, the Chair said that, as a first step of the procedure, the Committee will seek information from the State party, which in no way prejudges the next steps in the proceedings, and recalled that as for the implementation of all its mandate, the Committee's aim is “to maintain cooperation and constructive exchanges with the State in order to achieve our common objective, which is the full implementation of the Convention”.

The country review findings, officially known as Concluding Observations on first reports and stand-alone requests for additional information, as well as the report on Urgent Actions, and other documents, are available on the session webpage.

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