III. INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION FOR THE PROTECTION OF ALL PERSONS FROM ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE Before the creation of specific international instruments to address enforced disappearance, jurisprudence from international bodies, such as the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the European Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Chamber for Bosnia and Herzegovina, helped further normative principles relating to enforced disappearance.1 In 2001, the Commission on Human Rights requested an independent expert to examine the existing international criminal and human rights framework for the protection of persons from enforced or involuntary disappearance and to identify gaps in order to ensure full protection.2 In his report, the independent expert concluded that the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance was not established in any universal treaty and that there were many gaps regarding measures of prevention and effective remedies and reparation for victims. These gaps in the international legal framework justified the drawing-up of a new treaty. 3 Following the report of the independent expert, the Commission on Human Rights decided in 2003 to draw up such a treaty. Over 70 States, as well as numerous NGOs, associations of families of the disappeared and experts participated in the three-year negotiation process. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance was finally adopted by the General Assembly in December 2006. It will enter into force once 20 countries have ratified it. Unlike the Declaration, the Convention is a legally binding instrument. It draws extensively on the provisions of the Declaration, but includes For further information on this case law, see “Civil and political rights, including questions of: disappearances and summary executions: Report submitted by Mr. Manfred Nowak, independent expert charged with examining the existing international criminal and human rights framework for the protection of persons from enforced or involuntary disappearances, pursuant to paragraph 11 of Commission resolution 2001/46” (E/CN.4/2002/71); and Tullio Scovazzi and Gabriella Citroni, The Struggle against Enforced Disappearance and the 2007 United Nations Convention (Leiden, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007). 2 E/CN.4/2002/71. 3 The Inte.r-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons entered into force in 1996 1 7