have been received from the State party, in spite of a reminder addressed to it on 25 September 1995. As of 1 March 1996, no further information on the status of the case had been received. Committee's admissibility decision 7.1 During its fifty-first session, the Committee considered the admissibility of the communication. As to the State party's argument that the case is inadmissible because it is pending before the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, it observed that extra-conventional procedures or mechanisms established by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights or the Economic and Social Council, and whose mandates are to examine and publicly report on human rights situations in specific countries or territories or on major phenomena of human rights violations world wide, do not, as the State party should be aware, constitute a procedure of international investigation or settlement within the meaning of article 5, paragraph 2 (a), of the Optional Protocol. The Committee recalled that the study of human rights problems of a more global character, although it might refer to or draw on information concerning individuals, could not be seen as being the same matter as the examination of individual cases within the meaning of article 5, paragraph 2 (a), of the Protocol. Accordingly, the Committee considered that the fact that Ms. Laureano's case was registered before the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances did not make it inadmissible under this provision. 8.2 The Committee regrets the absence of cooperation on the part of the State party in respect of the merits of the communication. It is implicit in article 4, paragraph 2, of the Optional Protocol that a State party investigate thoroughly, in good faith and within the imparted deadlines, all the allegations of violations of the Covenant made against it, and to make available to the Committee all the information at its disposal. In the instant case, the State party has not furnished any information other than that Ms. Laureano's disappearance is being investigated. In the circumstances, due weight must be given to the author's allegations, to the effect that they have been substantiated. 8.3 In respect of the alleged violation of article 6, paragraph 1, the Committee recalls its General Comment 6 [16] on article 6 which states, inter alia, that States parties should take measures not only to prevent and punish deprivation of life by criminal acts, but also to prevent arbitrary killing by their own security forces. States parties should also take specific and effective measures to prevent the disappearance of individuals and establish effective facilities and procedures to investigate thoroughly, by an appropriate and impartial body, cases of missing and disappeared persons in circumstances which may involve a violation of the right to life. 7.2 Concerning the requirement of exhaustion of domestic remedies, the Committee noted that the State party had not provided any information on the availability and effectiveness of domestic remedies in the present case. On the basis of the information before it, it concluded that no effective remedies existed which the author should pursue on behalf of his granddaughter. The Committee therefore was not barred by article 5, paragraph 2 (b), of the Optional Protocol from considering the communication. 8.4 In the instant case, the Committee notes that the State party concedes that Ms. Laureano remains unaccounted for since the night of 13 August 1992 and does not deny that military or special police units in Huaura or Huacho may have been responsible for her disappearance, a conclusion reached, inter alia, by a judge on the Civil Court in Huacho. No material evidence has been advanced to support the State party's contention that a unit of Shining Path may have been responsible for her abduction. In the circumstances of the case, the Committee finds that Ana R. Celis Laureano's right to life enshrined in article 6, read together with article 2, paragraph 1, has not been effectively protected by the State party. The Committee recalls in particular that the victim had previously been arrested and detained by the Peruvian military on charges of collaboration with Shining Path, and that the life of Ms. Laureano and of members of her family had previously been threatened by a captain of the military base at Ambar, who in fact confirmed to Ms. Laureano's grandmother that Ana R. Celis Laureano had already been killed.2 7.3 On 4 July 1994, the Committee declared the communication admissible. The State party was requested in particular to provide detailed information on what investigations had been carried out by the judicial authorities as a result of the author's application for habeas corpus, and what investigations are now being conducted with regard to the finding of the judge on the Court of First Instance in Huacho that military personnel were involved in the abduction of Ms. Laureano. The State party was further requested to provide the Committee with all court documents relevant to the case. Examination on the merits 8.1 The deadline for the receipt of the State party's information under article 4, paragraph 2, of the Optional Protocol expired on 11 February 1995. No information about the results, if any, of further investigations in the case, nor any court documents 2 This statement, contained in a deposition made by the victim's grandmother on 30 September 1992, indicates in graphic terms that Ana Celis Laureano had in fact been eliminated. 66