UN : Ban Ki-moon has urged Member States to join an international treaty aimed at eliminating enforced disappearances and stop impunity for this scourge.
 “We must clarify the cases of disappeared persons, provide reparations to victims and bring perpetrators to justice,” Ban said Wednesday at the opening of a new photo exhibit, in New York, entitled “Absences.” The exhibit pays tribute to dozens of people who disappeared as a result of States suppressing legitimate demands concerning issues such as democracy, freedom of expression or freedom of religion.  The victims include the “desaparecidos” of the military government that ruled Argentina in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Among those attending the launch were the mothers and grandmothers of some of the desaparecidos featured in the exhibit. Ban urged Member States to answer the call of these relatives and ratify the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and “act on its provisions.”