Press release 07 February 2007
Ministry for Foreign Affairs

Sweden signs new UN Convention

On Tuesday Sweden signed the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance at a ceremony in Paris.

Sweden's Ambassador to France, Krister Kumlin, signed the Convention on behalf of Sweden.

The decision to sign the Convention was taken by the Government on 1 February. Sweden is thus one of the first states to sign this new international legal instrument. Negotiations on the Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance have been going on in the UN during the last eight years.

An enforced disappearance means that a person is in some way deprived of his or her liberty, that the state - directly or indirectly - is behind this deprivation of liberty, and that the deprivation of liberty is denied or that the person's fate or whereabouts are concealed. This is what is prohibited under the Convention, which then goes on to regulate the consequences for victims of an enforced disappearance and their relatives.

Previously, enforced disappearance was mainly associated with Latin American military dictatorships, but has become something that is reported on from all over the world.

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The newly signed Convention must be ratified before it can enter into force in Sweden.

There are a total of seven UN Conventions in the field of human rights, and Sweden is party to six of them. In addition to the seven conventions, there are a number of Additional Protocols. The Convention that Sweden has not ratified or signed is the Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.