seriousness of the offence and perpetrators shall not benefit from any special amnesty law or similar measures which might lead to impunity. The Declaration provides that the victims of enforced disappearance and their family shall obtain redress and shall have the right to adequate compensation, including the means for as complete a rehabilitation as possible. The Declaration pays special attention to the disappearance of children, the abduction of children of parents subjected to enforced disappearance and of children born during their mother’s enforced disappearance. States must devote their efforts to the search for and identification of such children and to their restitution to their families of origin. The World Conference on Human Rights, held at Vienna from 14 to 25 June 1993, welcomed the adoption of the Declaration by the General Assembly and called upon all States “to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other measures to prevent, terminate and punish acts of enforced disappearance.” The World Conference reaffirmed that “it is the duty of all States, under any circumstances, to make investigations whenever there is reason to believe that an enforced disappearance has taken place on a territory under their jurisdiction and, if allegations are confirmed, to prosecute its perpetrators.” Since 1993, the Commission on Human Rights and its successor, the Human Rights Council, have regularly adopted resolutions in which they have invited all Governments to take appropriate legislative or other steps to prevent and punish the practice of enforced disappearance, with special reference to the Declaration, and to take action to that end nationally, regionally and in cooperation with the United Nations. Notwithstanding the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance in 2006, the Declaration remains a fundamental document in the fight against enforced disappearance as it sets forth a set of rules that all the Member States of the United Nations, without the requirement of a ratification, are called upon to apply as a minimum to prevent and suppress the practice. The full text of the Declaration is set out in annex III to this Fact Sheet. 6