The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has been set up to investigate cases in which persons are detained or killed by states in secret prisons and the corpses are disposed of so that nothing can be proven to them.
The UN Human Rights Commission created this body on February 29, 1980 by means of a resolution,[1] which also defined the mandate.
[1] The members of the working group are not United Nations staff but are mandated by the UN [4][5] and the UN Human Rights Council has adopted a code of conduct.
[8] The working group prepares thematic studies and develops guidelines for the improvement of human rights.
To this end, it draws up annual reports to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly.