Iraq is a member of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances since 23 November 2010, and was the 20th country to implement its ratification. Meanwhile, recently Brazil became the 21st State to adhere to the Convention. Of the four Arab countries to have signed the convention (Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia) only Iraq has ratified it.

According to the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances, an "enforced disappearance is considered to be the arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which place such a person outside the protection of the law."

The treaty declares that every victim has the right to know the truth about the circumstances of his disappearance. By ratifying this text, member States commit to leading investigations on enforced disappearances, prosecuting those responsible and compensating families of the victims.

The implementation of this treaty is an essential step for the families of victims of disappearance, it will allow them, once implemented and once all internal alternatives are exhausted, to file complaints with the UN Committee against enforced disappearances.

However, only the cases filed against the government and concerning the signatory countries will be accepted. This means that, no victim (nor his family) from an Arabic country, except Iraq, will be able to use the Disappearances Convention in order to encourage their governments to recognize crimes of disappearance.

Cases of enforced disappearances are very common in the Arabic region, particularly in Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Morocco, Syria and Yemen.

The convention was adopted on 20 December 2006 and took four years for to be implemented. Alkarama will continue to encourage Arabic governments to join and commit to this new mechanism.

The list of the 21 countries which have ratified the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearances: Albania, Germany, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Chili, Cuba, Ecuador, Spain, France, Honduras, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mali, Mexico, Nigeria, Paraguay, Senegal and Uruguay.