GENEVA - The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances will hold its 139th session from 4 to 8 May 2026 in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire. A total of 624 cases from 44 countries will be reviewed, including cases concerning acts tantamount to enforced disappearance perpetrated by two non-state actors.
The Working Group thanks the Government of Côte d'Ivoire for its willingness to host one of its regular sessions in the country and for its cooperation in the organisation, which concretely facilitates and allows further engagement with regional stakeholders.
The Working Group's members will convene meetings with relatives of forcibly disappeared persons, State representatives, civil society organizations, and other relevant stakeholders to exchange information on individual cases as well as broader structural issues and challenges related to enforced disappearances.
During the session, the experts will also examine allegations regarding obstacles to the implementation of the Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, on legislative gaps, institutional practices, and systemic failures to effectively address cases of enforced disappearance and related human rights violations.
The experts will advance in the consideration of reports to be presented to the Human Rights Council in September 2026 including its study on enforced disappearances and memorialisation and the follow-up report to its country visit to Uruguay in 2022.
The Working Group will also discuss internal matters and future activities such as its upcoming joint statement with the Committee on Enforced Disappearances on enforced disappearances in the context of transnational repression; its upcoming country visit to Guatemala, scheduled to take place from 23 June to 2 July 2026, for which a call for submissions will be issued; and its technical cooperation activities, including the provision of technical advice to the Government of Chile and forthcoming support to The Gambia.
On the margins of the session, the Working Group will take part in joint activities with African Union organ bodies, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Côte d'Ivoire and civil society organizations, as part of its mandate. These activities will also follow-up on the recommendations contained in its report on the visit to African Union judicial and human rights organs and other sub-regional bodies, and contribute to the implementation of the Addis Ababa roadmap.
The conference with the Ministry of Justice will serve as a commemorative event for CED20: the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and it will explore the humanitarian consequences of enforced disappearances and measures to address the needs of forcibly disappeared persons and their families, in the context of Côte d'Ivoire's ratification of the International Convention on 6 June 2024.
The decisions made by the Working Group during the 139th session will be reflected in its next post-sessional report.
The sessions of the Working Group are held in private.
