On August 30th, the international community will commemorate the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, honoring those who have been forcibly disappeared, while encouraging States to cease this practice and remedy the damage it has caused. Enforced disappearance is defined as arrest, detention, abduction, or other deprivation of a person’s liberty by agents of the State, combined with the “refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person.” See International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, art. 2. In honor of this year’s International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stated that enforced disappearance “is a practice that cannot be tolerated in the twenty-first century,” urging States to “provide full information about the whereabouts of persons who have been disappeared [and to] effectively implement the right to the truth, justice and reparation for all victims and their families.” [UN]
Credit: Lisa Reinsberg
Enforced Disappearance under International Law
On December 21, 2010, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring August 30 the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, while simultaneously adopting the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. See UN General Assembly, Resolution 65/209 [on the report of the Third Committee (A/65/456/Add.2 (Part II))], International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, UN Doc. A/RES/65/209, 21 December 2010.
Enforced disappearances violate several human rights protected under international law, including the right to recognition as a person before the law; right to liberty and security of the person; right to life; right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment; right to an identity; right to a fair trial; right to an effective remedy; and the right to know the truth regarding the circumstances of a disappearance. OHCHR, Human Rights Fact Sheet No. 6: Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (2009).
Credit: OHCHR
While all human rights treaties explicitly protect many of these rights, specialized treaties contain more specific State obligations with regard to enforced disappearances and aim to increase awareness and accountability. These treaties include the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons. As of today, 43 States have ratified the International Convention, and 15 States are party to the Inter-American Convention. In honor of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, Ban Ki-moon encouraged States to ratify the International Convention “without delay,” noting that it “provides a sound foundation for fighting impunity, protecting disappeared persons and their families and strengthening the guarantees provided by the rule of law.” [UN]
Relevant Human Rights Mechanisms
Multiple international human rights mechanisms monitor or enforce States’ responsibility for enforced disappearances. The UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) oversees implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, by considering State reports, individual complaints, inter-State complaints, requests for urgent action and inquiries, and by issuing general comments and substantive statements, and holding thematic discussions. See IJRC, Committee on Enforced Disappearances. The CED will hold its seventh session in Geneva, Switzerland from September 15 through 26, when it will be reviewing the State reports of Belgium, Paraguay, Armenia, Mexico, and Serbia. [OHCHR] The session’s agenda, State reports, and additional documents may be accessed on the 7th Session webpage. Other UN human rights treaty bodies have also addressed the issue of forced disappearance. For example, the UN Human Rights Committee has issued a significant number of decisions on this issue, which may be accessed on its table of jurisprudence.
Additionally, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is a special procedure of the UN Human Rights Council that helps relatives of disappeared persons to discover the whereabouts of their disappeared family members. [OHCHR] The Working Group receives reports of disappearances and communicates with governments regarding individual cases, requesting that the State carry out an investigation and inform the Working Group of the results. [OHCHR]
Relevant International Jurisprudence
Regional human rights bodies have also taken up the issue of enforced disappearances. Notably, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights’ first judgment involved the disappearance of a student who was detained without a warrant by the armed forces in Honduras, where he was “accused of alleged political crimes and subjected to harsh interrogation and cruel torture.” See I/A Court H.R., Case of Velásquez-Rodríguez v. Honduras. Merits. Judgment of July 29, 1998. Series C No. 4, para. 3. The Court held that the State had violated his right to personal liberty, right to humane treatment, and right to life, as set forth in the American Convention on Human Rights. Id. at para. 194. The Court noted that the “practice of disappearances . . . shows a crass abandonment of the values which emanate from the concept of human dignity.” Id. at para. 158.
This decision has since been cited by the European Court of Human Rights, including in a case where a Turkish citizen brought a claim regarding the disappearance of her son, who she last saw when he was surrounded by soldiers. See ECtHR, Kurt v. Turkey, ECtHR, no. 24276/94, Judgment of 25 May 1998, para. 99. There, the Court found that the State had violated the right to liberty and security of person, the prohibition of torture, and the right to an effective remedy under the European Convention on Human Rights. Id. at paras. 129, 134, 142. The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights also referenced the Velásquez-Rodríguez decision in a case involving a medical student’s arrest and detention in various prisons before he disappeared; the Commission held that forced disappearances constitute a continuing violation of human rights. See ACommHPR, J.E. Zitha & P.L.J. Zitha v. Republic of Mozambique, Communication No. 361/2008, 9th Extra-Ordinary Session, March 2011, paras. 2 –7, 94.
Argentine Advocates Identify Two More Children of Disappearance Victims
This year, the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances will likely be particularly meaningful for advocates in Argentina, including Estela de Carlotto, who was reunited with her disappeared grandson earlier this month, after searching for him over the past 36 years. Ms. de Carlotto’s daughter was disappeared by the Argentine military regime and her grandson was taken away when he was a baby. [OHCHR] Ms. de Carlotto is the president of Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo, an Argentine human rights organization dedicated to finding the children born to political prisoners and other disappearance victims of the 1970s, who were then often raised by families affiliated with the military regime and without knowledge of their heritage. United Nations experts have welcomed the reunion, taking the opportunity to urge States to “assume their duty to secure the rights for truth, justice and reparation” by fully supporting the “families of disappeared and organizations working on their behalf.” [OHCHR] On August 22nd, the Abuelas announced they had located the missing granddaughter of the organization’s first president, Alicia Zubasnabar de la Cuadra, who died in 2008. [Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo] This was the 115th such case resolved by the organization.
Additional Information
For additional information on mechanisms that help prevent and remedy enforced disappearances, see the IJRC Online Resource Hub pages on the Committee on Enforced Disappearances, the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, and other Courts and Monitoring Bodies.