Government’s reply referred to a different person, does not correspond to the reported situation or has not reached the source within the sixmonth period described above, the Working Group retransmits the case to the Government, requesting it to comment. In such instances the case is again listed among the unclarified cases and the situation is explained in the Working Group’s report to the Human Rights Council, indicating the errors or discrepancies. Any additional substantive information which the source submits on an outstanding case is put before the Working Group and, following its approval, transmitted to the Government concerned. If the additional information received amounts to a clarification of the case, the Government is so informed. The Working Group retains cases in its files as long as the exact whereabouts of the disappeared persons have not been determined. While the Working Group’s mandate does not extend beyond the stage at which a disappeared person’s fate is made known, other human rights procedures of the United Nations can take up where the Working Group leaves off. If the reply from the Government concerned clearly indicates that the disappeared person has been found dead, tortured, in arbitrary but acknowledged detention, or to be a victim of other human rights violations for which Government officials or groups or individuals linked to them are allegedly responsible, the case can be brought to the attention of the appropriate mechanism or body by the Working Group or by the relatives. If the Working Group receives a report of an enforced disappearance in which the victim has already been found dead, it does not admit the case for transmission to the respective Government, since it would be a case clarified ab initio. However, such a case would still fall within the definition of enforced disappearance included in the Declaration, if (i) the deprivation of liberty took place against the will of the person concerned, (ii) with the involvement of Government officials, at least indirectly by acquiescence, and (iii) State officials thereafter refused to acknowledge the act or to disclose the fate or whereabouts of the person. That is to say, in accordance with the mandate of the Working Group to monitor the implementation of the Declaration, such a report may be transmitted to the Government in question as “general allegations”, but not as an “urgent appeal” or under the “standard procedure”. The Working Group would then invite the Government concerned to comment on the measures that 19

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