Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa signed the Convention for The Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances here on Monday. The Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, adopted on 20 December 2006 by the UN General Assembly, has been signed by a total of 84 nations so far. Minister Marty Natalegawa signed the Convention on the sidelines of the 65th General Assembly at the UN Headquarters. The Convention has not been effective officially because 20 more countries are still expected to ratify it. "It has been signed, and we have to wait for the ratification (by the Parliament)," Minister Marty said. Signing the Convention on Enforced Disappearance would strengthen the role and position of Indonesia as a democratic nation, he said. The Convention is in line with Indonesia's Human Rights Plan 2010-2014, and advocacy promoted by human right activists who have actively urged the government to sign the Convention since 1988, ANTARA reported. Other signatories of the Convention are France, Germany, Japan, Cuba, Spain, Argentine, Uruguay, Paraguay, Mexico, Honduras, Chile, Ecuador, Bolivia, Albania, Kazakhstan, Senegal, Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Mali. The Convention on Enforced Disappearance among other things states that no one shall be subjected to enforced disappearance. No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.
