General Comment on the right to recognition as a person before the law in the context of enforced disappearances

Key Judgment

Legal Relevance

Keywords: Judicial Protection | Children/Youth

Themes: Justice and Truth

The General Comments builds on Article 1 of the Declaration and clarifies that victims of enforced disappearance are thrust in a legal limbo where their legal existence is denied and thus this prevents them from enjoying all other human rights. This is true also in cases of children who were born during their mother's enforced disappearance. Under such circumstances, states have the obligation to recognise the legal personality of the disappeared individual through a "declaration of absence by reason of enforced disappearance". Even though states afford such a declaration, they still have the obligation to fulfil their duty to investigate the fate of the victim.