ISLAMABAD: The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has urged the government to affirm its commitment towards ending enforced disappearances by ratifying the “International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance”.

The HRW advice came on eve of the International Day for the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, to be observed on Friday (today).

The attorney general had in July admitted that more than 500 disappeared people were in the custody of security agencies, said the HRW in a statement on Thursday.

“Ratifying the convention against disappearances is a key test for Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s new government,” said Ali Dayan Hasan, Pakistan director for the Human Rights Watch. “The government will send a clear political message that it was serious in ending the ‘disappearances’.

“This will also show its commitment to ensuring justice,” he said.

The country’s participation in the US-led ‘war on terror’ since 2001 had resulted in disappearance of hundreds, perhaps thousands of individuals.