The UNPO has submitted written information to both the Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) and the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED). The input highlights the issue of enforced disappearances within the framework of transnational repression. Furthermore, it emphasises the disproportionate effect of these practices on unrepresented nations and peoples, whose vulnerability is exacerbated by the denial of their political rights, including the right to self-determination, and their lack of formal representation.
The submission responds to the call for input on enforced disappearances committed beyond a state’s territorial borders and highlights how authoritarian governments increasingly use enforced disappearance, forced returns, and family reprisals to silence human rights defenders, activists, and diaspora communities abroad.
Drawing on UNPO’s long-standing engagement with unrepresented communities, the submission argues that enforced disappearance in a transnational context is not an isolated violation, but a systemic and strategic practice aimed at extending state repression across borders. UNPO stresses that unrepresented nations and peoples, including Crimean Tatars, Uyghurs, Tibetans, Baloch, and Iranian Kurds, face heightened vulnerability due to the denial of political representation, limited access to international protection mechanisms, and structural barriers to justice.
The submission documents multiple pathways through which transnational enforced disappearances occur, including:
- Direct abductions abroad carried out by state agents or proxies
- Forced returns, deportations, and renditions, often facilitated through migration systems or misuse of Interpol mechanisms
- Abuse of legal and administrative frameworks to enable detention and transfer
- Digital surveillance and online intimidation used to locate and target activists in exile
- Family reprisals, where relatives remaining in the country of origin are detained or disappeared to coerce silence
The submission also highlights the bi-directional chilling effect created by enforced disappearances used transnationally. Disappearances abroad signal to those at home that exile offers no safety, while reprisals against family members deter diaspora communities from engaging in advocacy, international mechanisms, or public expression.
By highlighting the way such practices remove individuals from legal protection as well as instilling fear across entire communities leading to self-censorship, UNPO recommends that the WGEID and CED:
- Strengthen engagement with non-State Parties to the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances;
- Enhance cooperation with host States to prevent extraterritorial disappearances;
- Strengthen protection measures for activists and human rights defenders targeted transnationally;
- Integrate family reprisals into the analysis of enforced disappearance;
- Document and respond to the chilling effect on diaspora communities;
- Address digital technologies as enablers of enforced disappearances; and
- Ensure protection and access to remedies for victims and families abroad.
