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9.
The total number of cases transmitted by the Working Group to Governments since the
Working Group’s inception is 51,763. The number of cases under active consideration that have
not yet been clarified or discontinued stands at 41,257 and concerns 78 States. The Working
Group has been able to clarify 2,702 cases over the past five years.
10. It is recalled that recent cases of disappearance are the priority of the Working Group.
Large volumes of cases submitted to the Working Group many years after the persons
disappeared are reviewed by the Working Group and processed by the Secretariat as an ongoing
process. With the improved staffing beginning in 2005, the Working Group was able to address
the backlog of cases. However, during 2007, the Working Group received more than 1,000 cases,
and expects to be able to process them in 2008. The Working Group wishes to thank the Office
of the High Commissioner for the continuous support given to the Working Group, and hopes to
maintain the adequate level of staffing which it now enjoys.
II. ACTIVITIES OF THE WORKING GROUP ON ENFORCED
OR INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES: NOVEMBER 2006
TO NOVEMBER 2007
A. Meetings
11. During the period under review, the Working Group held three sessions in Geneva.
The eighty-first session was held from 15 to 21 March 2007, the eighty-second session
from 25 to 29 June 2007 and the eighty-third session from 21 to 30 November 2007.
12. The Chairman-Rapporteur of the Working Group is Mr. Santiago Corcuera. The other
members are Mr. J. ‘Bayo Adekanye, Mr. Saied Rajaie Khorasani, Mr. Darko Göttlicher, and
Mr. Stephen J. Toope.
13. In June 2007, Mr. Corcuera attended the fourteenth annual meeting of special rapporteurs,
representatives, independent experts and chairpersons of working groups of the Human Rights
Council. In April 2007, he participated in a workshop on the follow-up to the Ombudsman
Offices’ implementation of the recommendations formulated by international human rights
mechanisms. The workshop took place in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. In May 2007,
Mr. Corcuera participated in a Workshop on the International Convention for the Protection of
all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, which took place in Paris. In October 2007, he
participated in a regional workshop on the problem of enforced disappearances held in Lima, and
organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
14. During the period under review, the Working Group met formally with representatives of
the Governments of France, Iraq, Japan, Mexico and Thailand. The Working Group also met
with representatives of human rights non-governmental organizations, associations of relatives of
disappeared persons and families or witnesses directly concerned with reports of enforced
disappearance.
15. During the fourth session of the Human Rights Council, the Working Group met with
representatives of the Government of Sri Lanka. The Chairman-Rapporteur, Mr. Corcuera, also
met with representatives of the Governments of Colombia and Argentina.