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Forced disappearance pact inked

Argentine Marta Vasquez-Ocampo, right, president of Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo speaks with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner's wife, Senator Cristina Fernandez De Kirchner, during the International Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons on Tuesday at the French foreign ministry in Paris. PHOTO: AFP

Nearly 60 countries have signed a treaty banning forced disappearances, capping a quarter-century of efforts by families of people who have vanished at the hands of governments.

The US was notably absent among the signatories on Tuesday. US President George W. Bush's administration opposed an early draft of the treaty, which bars governments from holding people in secret detention.

"Our American friends were naturally invited to this ceremony; unfortunately, they weren't able to join us," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told reporters after 57 states signed the treaty at his ministry in Paris.

"That won't prevent them from one day signing on in New York at UN headquarters -- and I hope they will," he said.

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack declined comment except to say that the US had helped draft the treaty but that the final text "did not meet our expectations."

McCormack declined to comment on whether the US stance was influenced by the administration's policy of sending terrorism suspects to CIA-run prisons overseas, which Bush acknowledged last September.

Many other Western countries, including Germany, Spain, Britain and Italy, did not sign the treaty. France introduced the convention at the UN General Assembly in November and it was adopted in December.

The treaty was officially opened for signature at the ceremony in Paris on Tuesday. It will enter into force after 20 countries ratify it, usually by a parliamentary vote.

Many delegates expressed hope that other countries would sign on by year-end. Some European states have expressed support for the treaty but face constitutional hurdles or require a full Cabinet debate before signing, French and UN officials said.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) Louise Arbour called the treaty an important step both in preventing injustices common years ago and barring newer tactics that often fall through regulatory loopholes.

Arbour said the US had expressed "reservations" about parts of the text, but declined to elaborate and urged US officials to sign and ratify it. She noted that the US often backs activities of the UNHCHR without formally signing on to them.

She called the treaty "a message to all modern-day authorities committed to the fight against terrorism" -- that some methods applied in the past are now "not acceptable, in a very explicit way."

The convention defines forced disappearances as the arrest, detention, kidnapping or "any other form of deprivation of freedom" by state agents or affiliates, followed by denials or cover-ups about the detention and location of the person gone missing.

States that go on to ratify the text would enshrine victims' rights, and would require states to penalize any forced disappearances in their countries and enact preventive and monitoring measures.

Latin America, is now owning up to much of the violence that left hundreds of thousands dead or "disappeared" during wars and under dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s.

Many Latin American dignitaries joined the signing, including Argentina's first lady, lawmaker Cristina Kirchner.
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