[JURIST] The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on Monday called on [press release] all governments to make a concerted effort to fight against enforced disappearances. Noting the increasing prevalence of disappearances, Houria Es Slami [official website], head of the working group, said “every year we make similar calls expressing serious concern about the persistence of this horrific practice. In spite of that, the reality on the ground is alarming [as the number of reported disappearances grows].” Es Slami warned against the relatively new practice of temporary enforced disappearances, and encouraged all states to undertake the “long and winding” road toward eradicating the practice by working with the WGEID.

While enforced disappearance has been a worldwide problem, the most well-documented recent case of disappearance took place in Mexico in 2014. Earlier this year a panel of experts released [JURIST report] its second and last report on its inquiry into the 43 undergraduate students from a teachers college in Ayotzinapa who went missing in Iguala, Guerrero, Mexico, in 2014, stating that the Mexican government has hampered the investigation. In January three men were arrested [JURIST report] for their possible connection to the disappearance as part of the government’s story. In November Mexico’s own National Human Rights Commission criticized [JURIST report] the Mexican Attorney General’s Office and other government offices involved in the investigation for failing to comply with its recommendations. Last October Human Rights Watch reported [JURIST report] that there was evidence of unlawful police killing in the country. Also last October Mexican Attorney General Arely Gómez González released [JURIST report] a 54,000 page file detailing the Mexican government’s investigation.