ISLAMABAD, March 2: The Human Rights Council, now meeting in Geneva for its 22nd session, will take up on Tuesday the report on enforced or involuntary disappearances in Pakistan prepared by its working group that visited the country in September last year.

The working group delegation comprising Olivier de Frouville and Osman El-Hajje visited Pakistan from Sept 10 to Sept 20 to gather information on cases of enforced disappearances.

The delegation studied the measures taken by the government to prevent and eradicate enforced disappearances and about issues relating to truth, justice and reparation for the victims.

According to the schedule announced by the council for its current session which will end on March 22, the report of the working group on its mission to Pakistan will come up for debate.

The report contains a set of 17 recommendations which among others recommended that Pakistan should ratify the Convention for the Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearances.

It recommended that a new and autonomous crime of enforced disappearances should be included in the criminal code, following the definition given in the 2006 convention, and with all the legal consequences flowing from this qualification.

Investigation against and punishment of perpetrators should be in accordance with law, and with all the guarantees of a fair trial. Perpetrators should be punished with appropriate penalties, with the clear exclusion of the death penalty.

Investigations should be initiated whenever there are reasonable grounds to believe that an enforced disappearance has been committed, even if there has been no formal complaint.

Measures should be taken to ensure that in case of human rights violations, suspected perpetrators, including army personnel, are suspended from any official duties during the investigation and are tried only by competent ordinary courts, and not by other special tribunal, in particular military courts.

Clear rules and dedicated institutions should be created in order to ensure the monitoring and the accountability of law-enforcement and intelligence agencies, the report recommends. Separately, the Human Rights Council will consider and adopt the final outcome of the review of Pakistan adopted during the universal periodic review of human rights situation on March 14.