The United Nations (UN) Monday urged governments to ratify the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance as it noted the increasing number of enforced disappearances worldwide.

The UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances said the ratification “will help strengthen governments' capacities to reduce the number of disappearances,” adding that it will “bolster the hopes and the demands for justice and truth by victims and their families.”

According to the UN independent experts, there have been more than 50,000 cases of enforced disappearance since 1980.

UN Working Group on enforced or involuntary disappearances chairperson Jeremy Sarkin said cases of enforced disappearances “remains severely underreported, particularly in certain regions of the world.”

The increasing cases of enforced disappearances is noted to have a great impact among women and children. Women become victims of sexual and other forms of violence while children’s rights are violated when their parents become victims of enforced disappearance.

The UN Working group also said that arrests committed during military operations, arbitrary detentions and extraordinary renditions "can amount to enforced disappearances."