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New Zealand is pleased to support the adoption of the Convention on the Protection of all Persons Against Enforced Disappearances, which addresses a significant human rights issue and reflects the critical importance of this issue for certain regions in particular.
New Zealand would like to place on record the following understandings on the draft instrument.
New Zealand would like to note that some of the provisions of the Convention depart from already established international criminal law. New Zealand worked hard during the negotiations to ensure consistency and to avoid possible confusion between different international instruments dealing with similar legal principles. New Zealand therefore interprets the relevant principles of international law contained in the Convention consistently with already established international law, both customary law and law contained in major international instruments to which we are party, including the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court which was the subject of detailed negotiations by experts in international criminal law. It is New Zealand’s understanding that nothing in the Convention should be seen to undercut or re-interpret already existing international law.
In relation to Article 5, New Zealand notes that the definition of enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity in the text of the Convention differs from already established international law. Accordingly, New Zealand suggests that nothing in the text of the Convention should be seen to undercut or reinterpret already-existing international law. New Zealand will accordingly interpret this Article consistently with its understanding of already existing international law.
Finally, despite language which again differs from already well-established international law on command responsibility of civilian superiors and military commanders, New Zealand understands that Article 6 can be read consistently with that law. We note with some regret that there are no specific provisions which set out the standards of responsibility related to military commanders. However New Zealand understands the clause in Article 6(2) as acknowledging the higher standard of responsibility applicable to military commanders under existing international law and as applying those standards to military commanders also in respect of acts of enforced disappearance.
