The Committee for Justice (CFJ) has submitted a written contribution in response to the call for inputs on the first draft of General Comment No. 2 of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, concerning the impact of enforced disappearances on women and girls.
In its submission, CFJ welcomed the Committee’s recognition that the enforced disappearance of women and girls constitutes one of the most extreme forms of gender-based violence. CFJ also welcomed the draft’s recognition of women searchers as victims, human rights defenders, and central actors in truth, justice, reparation, and guarantees of non-repetition.
Drawing on its monitoring and documentation work on Sudan, CFJ stressed that the final General Comment should provide stronger and more practical guidance for armed conflict contexts, where enforced disappearance intersects with abduction, arbitrary detention, sexual and gender-based violence, displacement, trafficking, reprisals, and the collapse or absence of effective State institutions.
CFJ noted that the ongoing armed conflict in Sudan has created conditions in which women and girls face heightened risks of disappearance by armed actors, including in areas under the control or influence of non-State armed groups. The organization emphasized that such cases are often misclassified as “abductions,” “arrests,” “missing persons,” or “detention by armed actors,” which contributes to statistical invisibility and weakens search, investigation, and accountability efforts.
The submission referred to patterns documented by CFJ, including the abduction and enforced disappearance of six girls from in the Nuba Mountains, the arrest of girls and a medical staff member in Kutum, and broader concerns raised by Sudanese civil society organizations during CFJ’s recent closed consultation with the UN Fact-Finding Mission on Sudan.
CFJ urged the Committee to strengthen the final General Comment in five key areas: the responsibility of States in conflict settings involving non-State armed actors; gender-sensitive and conflict-sensitive documentation systems; safe, confidential, remote, and cross-border reporting mechanisms; protection for women searchers, women human rights defenders, journalists, lawyers, and displaced women; and comprehensive reparation measures that address the legal, social, economic, and psychosocial consequences of disappearance.
“Sudan demonstrates why the final General Comment must speak clearly to situations of armed conflict and displacement,” CFJ said. “Women and girls are not only at risk of disappearance as direct victims; they are also placed at risk when they search for disappeared relatives, document violations, or demand truth and justice. Their protection must be central to any effective response.”
CFJ further stressed that States must ensure that the burden of search is not transferred to families, particularly women relatives who often lead search efforts in the absence of effective official mechanisms. The organization called for protected channels for reporting and follow-up, including through civil society organizations, humanitarian actors, consular channels, and independent international and regional mechanisms.
The organization also called for reparations that reflect the gendered and intergenerational impact of enforced disappearance, including psychosocial support, recognition of absence due to disappearance, access to civil documentation, education for children, livelihood support, and protection of property and inheritance rights. CFJ emphasized that women should never be forced to declare a disappeared relative dead in order to access basic rights and services.
CFJ concluded by urging the Committee on Enforced Disappearances to ensure that the final General Comment provides practical guidance for contexts such as Sudan, where enforced disappearance is linked to armed conflict, displacement, sexual and gender-based violence, shrinking civic space, and lack of effective domestic remedies.
