Background

At its forty-first session, held in December 2025, the United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (the Committee) established a working group to prepare guidelines on the disappearance of persons in the context of migration.

Objectives

The working group is currently elaborating the guidelines, with the objective of compiling existing standards applicable to the various stages of disappearances in the context of migration, as developed by relevant international and regional bodies. The working group also aims to reflect standards applied by the Committee in its jurisprudence and to further elaborate certain aspects relating to indirect victims, family members, and the requirements for comprehensive policy responses by States.

To this end, The Committee calls upon all interested stakeholders (States Parties to the Convention, other Member States, United Nations specialized agencies and other bodies, national human rights institutions, non-governmental organizations, the academia, etc.) to provide comments on the draft version of the Guidelines on the Disappearance of Persons in the Context of Migration, available in English, French and Spanish (original working version).

Draft Guidelines on the Disappearance of Persons in the Context of Migration: English