Berlin / Geneva — 9 February 2026
The Committee for Justice (CFJ) and the Law and Democracy Support Foundation (LDSF) have submitted a joint contribution to the United Nations Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, responding to the global call for inputs on enforced disappearance in the context of transnational repression.
The submission draws on extensive documentation, in‑depth legal analysis, and case‑based evidence, showing how enforced disappearance is increasingly used to silence dissent beyond national borders. While situating these patterns within a broader global landscape affecting human rights defenders, journalists, activists, refugees, and their families in exile, the report places particular emphasis on the Egyptian context.
The contribution identifies recurring modalities through which transnational enforced disappearances occur, including unlawful interception during travel or in transit zones, politically motivated deportations or renditions, misuse of counter‑terrorism legislation, and informal security cooperation carried out without judicial oversight, in addition to coercion‑by‑proxy, whereby relatives of exiled critics are subjected to arbitrary arrest or enforced disappearance to pressure those abroad.
The report further demonstrates how exceptional legal and administrative frameworks in Egypt particularly those related to counter‑terrorism are deployed extraterritorially to pursue individuals in exile, exposing them to a real and foreseeable risk of enforced disappearance. It also addresses the role played by certain diplomatic missions in surveillance, intimidation, and the denial of consular services and civil documentation, generating sustained legal insecurity that extends to families and amounts to collective punishment.
In addition, the submission examines the misuse of international cooperation mechanisms, including extradition procedures and police cooperation tools, and exposes serious accountability gaps that enable cross‑border enforced disappearances to persist with near‑total impunity. Despite growing political recognition of the risks posed by transnational repression at regional and international levels, existing safeguards remain fragmented, non‑binding, and insufficient to prevent violations.
CFJ and LDSF call on host States to adopt an integrated, urgent, and binding package of measures to confront transnational repression and prevent the enforced disappearances associated with it, including:
- Establishing safe and effective protection pathways for human rights defenders, journalists, and exiles including humanitarian visas, resettlement programs, and legal and psychosocial support under victim‑centered, gender‑responsive, and inclusive policies;
- Conducting systematic investigations into threats, physical attacks, digital surveillance, and the targeting of relatives; ensuring accountability for all actors involved, including intermediaries and technology providers; and guaranteeing effective grievance and reparation mechanisms;
- Subjecting requests for extradition, removal, mutual legal assistance, and police cooperation including notices and diffusions issued through the International Criminal Police Organization to enhanced human‑rights‑based screening consistent with the principle of non‑refoulement, and taking States’ records of transnational repression into account when concluding security agreements or sharing information;
- Imposing strict controls on the export and use of surveillance tools and spyware, requiring companies to conduct human rights and gender impact assessments, and strengthening privacy, encryption, and transparency safeguards;
- Criminalizing coercion‑by‑proxy, ending the targeting of exiles’ family members, and preventing the instrumentalization of diplomatic missions for intimidation or for denying documentation and consular services;
- Creating specialized mechanisms of inquiry into cross‑border enforced disappearances that guarantee victims’ rights to truth, justice, reparation, and rehabilitation, while enhancing information‑sharing and imposing political and legal consequences on perpetrators to ensure non‑