The Committee was alarmed by reports of enforced disappearance of at least 51 victims, including children, allegedly committed by law enforcement agencies, including the Armed Forces, during security operations between 2024 and 2025, primarily affecting Afro-Ecuadorian citizens in Esmeraldas, Guayas, and Los Ríos. The Committee expressed concern about the militarisation of public security and the continuous declarations of states of emergency during which these disappearances took place and urged Ecuador to end this approach and strengthen civilian law enforcement agencies. Additionally, Ecuador was asked to limit the use of states of emergency and ensure that the Armed Forces' involvement in public security is extraordinary and temporary, and subject to civilian oversight and accountability mechanisms. The Committee further stressed the need to ensure that the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces fully cooperate with the authorities responsible for searching for disappeared persons and investigating allegations of enforced disappearance, which included prompt and unhindered access to all relevant documents and information, including records related to military operations.
The Committee also raised alarm about the rising number of child disappearances, deficiencies in inter-institutional coordination in implementing the Strategy for the Prevention and Eradication of the Recruitment, Use and Exploitation of Children and Adolescents, and the limited use of the "Alerta Emilia" programme in cases of disappeared children in this context. The Committee urged Ecuador to strengthen its mechanisms for detecting and locating disappeared children and to prevent such disappearances.
Iraq
The Committee highlighted its concern about the lack of implementation of the recommendations it communicated to Iraq since 2015 in its previous concluding observations, visit report and urgent actions, including the incorporation of an autonomous offence of enforced disappearance in national legislation. The Committee also underscored reports of ongoing allegations of enforced disappearance occurred in the context of security operations, detention and protests, such as those occurred during the October 2019 Tishreen protests. It also mentioned more recent cases of alleged disappearance in 2024 and 2025 registered under the Committee's urgent action procedure. Iraq was urged to take concrete steps to ensure that all alleged enforced disappearances, including those involving terrorism suspects, are investigated thoroughly, effectively and impartially through concrete actions to search for disappeared people and investigate their disappearance, including through the establishment of a specialised judicial body or prosecutorial unit.
The Committee was also highly concerned about the increase in reports of threats, attacks, intimidation and reprisals against victims of enforced disappearance, human rights defenders, lawyers, civil society organisations, public officials, and other individuals actively participating in the search and investigation process or who have filed a complaint with the national authorities or submitted a request for urgent action to the Committee. Iraq was urged to redouble its efforts to prevent and punish such acts and to promote remembrance activities to acknowledge enforced disappearances and raise awareness about this heinous crime and its consequence for victims.
Malawi
The Committee highlighted the need for the urgent inclusion of an autonomous crime of enforced disappearance in national legislation to allow all progresses to promote the search for the disappeared and the investigation of enforced disappearances. It noted with concern the discovery of a mass grave in Mzimba district and the challenges faced by the authorities due to the advanced state of decomposition. It further expressed its concern about Malawi's limited technical capacity to conduct exhumations, preserve evidence and identify bodies according to international standards. The Committee called for strengthening the State Party's forensic capacity to identify and return with dignity bodies and human remains to families.
The Committee further underlined the urgency of ensuring the proper registration and qualification of alleged enforced disappearances, illustrating this urgency with the cases of Peter Mulamba (former deputy head of the grain marketing board, key witness in anti-corruption trials), Issa Njaunju (former anti-corruption official) and Sylvester Namiwa (leading human rights activist), and referring to reports of deaths in custody at Mikuyu 1 Prison, and by subsequent efforts to conceal the truth through secret burial of bodies and the falsification of records. The Committee highlighted the responsibility of national authorities to promptly initiate thorough and impartial search and investigation into all allegations of enforced disappearance, even in the absence of an official complaint.
Samoa
The Committee underlined its concern about the lack of a separate offence of enforced disappearance with penalties matching its gravity, as the current definition covered only crimes against humanity, and this lack of a standalone offence hindered investigation, prosecution and punishment of the crime. The Committee also expressed its concern about the inexistence of a mechanism to search for disappeared persons, and to investigate and prosecute alleged enforced disappearances. It further questioned the requirement to wait 24 hours after a disappearance is reported before initiating a search and noted with concern that the related processes appear to be limited to posts on the authorities' Facebook page and other communication channels. The Committee recommended that Samoa develop and carry out a strategy and a mechanism to search for disappeared persons, ensuring immediate action upon authorities becoming aware of the case, and guaranteeing that all allegations are investigated promptly and effectively.
Concern was also expressed about the lack of information on investigations into alleged illegal intercountry adoptions, the limited capacity of the Ministry of Women, Community and Social Development to register and monitor adoptions, and the lack of regulation of so-called "informal adoptions" within extended families, putting children at risk of enforced disappearance. It recommended specific procedures for reviewing and annulling adoptions, placements or guardianship and ensuring systematic birth registration throughout the country to protect children from enforced disappearance.
In addition to country reviews, the Committee adopted its periodic Report on Urgent Actions. Since last October, the Committee has received 161 new urgent action requests. As of 28 February 2026, the Committee had registered 2,239 requests, of which 546 disappeared persons had been located, including 9 during the latest reporting period. The Committee welcomed that 427 disappeared persons have been found alive since the beginning of the procedure.
The Committee also launched CED20, the 20th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention. The anniversary campaign, with the slogan "Victims first. Actions now" places victims at the centre of all efforts, underscores that enforced disappearances can be prevented and that States and other stakeholders have clear responsibilities and tools to act. The CED20 anniversary webpage has been created, listing activities held to mark the occasion are listed, along with a CED20 Trello board, which contains visual materials, videos and a pop-up library available to all. All interested parties are welcome to join to and participate in the proposed activities or organise complementary initiatives.
The above country review findings, officially known as Concluding Observations, and the Urgent Actions Report are available online on the session page.
