The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, in cooperation with several partners, held a high-level event on 22 September 2025 in Geneva to launch its new report entitled: “Enforced Disappearance in the Context of the Defence of Land, Natural Resources and Environment.”
The report warns of an alarming rise in the use of enforced disappearance as a tool to silence those defending their communities and the environment, particularly in contexts marked by weak rule of law, state complicity, or pressure from powerful economic interests. It stresses that such violations pose a direct threat to human rights defenders and to the protection of natural resources.
In his intervention, Ahmed Mefreh, Executive Director of the Committee for Justice (CFJ), underlined that enforced disappearance is no longer an abstract phenomenon but a daily reality in Egypt, Sudan, and across the Sahel. He stated: “The documentation we have gathered reveals systematic patterns in which land and environmental defenders are increasingly targeted, often with the involvement of economic actors and in the absence of accountability from authorities.” He called for the criminalization of enforced disappearance in national legislation, accountability for perpetrators—whether state officials or economic actors—and effective protection for those defending land and the environment.
The event was moderated by Anexa Alfred Cunningham, President of the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and featured contributions from leading experts and officials, including Gabriella Citroni and Ana Lorena Delgadillo of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, Albert K. Barume, UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Miriam Miranda from OFRANEH (Honduras), H.E. Amb. Michele Cervone d’Urso, EU Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Pinnapa Prueksapan, wife of the Thai defender “Billy” Rakchongcharoen, and Alejandra Gonza, Executive Director of Global Rights Advocacy.
Mefreh concluded his remarks by stressing: “Those who dedicate their lives to defending rights and resources must not be punished with disappearance, but honored with justice.”
