As soon as disappearances began to occur on a large scale, around 1980, the necessity to improve international protection against disappearances became apparent. Families and NGOs have been making constant efforts in this direction, which has led to a series of developments in international law within the United Nations and other international forums. In 1980 the UN Human Rights Commission established the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID). This workgroup is specifically involved with issues of disappearance and aims to enable communication between families of disappeared persons and authorities.
In 1992 the 'Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance' was adopted. Although an important document, it is not legally binding.
The Treaty of Rome, established the International Court, grants authority for the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators of enforced disappearances in the event of massive or systematic disappearances. Previously various sources of international law already considered the enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity. Finally the international call from diverse relatives' organisations for an additional instrument, this time in the form of a convention or a protocol, resulted in 2006 in the 'International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances'. This treaty was adopted on the 20th of December 2006 by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It is one of the strongest human rights treaties ever adopted.

The new treaty on disappearances is extremely important for the family organisations. They have strived to achieve it for more then 20 years. Therefore, the adoption of the UN Convention was celebratred as a huge victory. At the same time, it signalled the start of a new campaign for ratification and implementation of the Convention. 26th of September 2007, the International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances started a worldwide campaign to call for all UN member states to sign and ratify the Convention. Aim for human rights is the international focal point of this campaign.