Domestic Mechanisms Database
The Domestic Mechanisms Database includes mechanisms from around the world that have been put in place at national levels to address the crime of enforced disappearances. It includes criminal, constitutional and civil legislation, truth and reconciliation bodies, search and forensic mechanisms, reparation among other domestic frameworks. Users can search the source bank through a filter-based or key-term search and access text in English, Spanish, Russian and French.
Search the PDF content in documents uploaded to the Enforced Disappearance Legal Database.
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Law on Missing Persons
The Law applies to persons who disappeared in the period from 30 April 1991 to 14 February 1996 as a consequence of the armed conflict that happened on the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. It provides that the families of missing and disappeared persons have the right to know their fate, place of residence or, if dead, the circumstances and cause of their death and the location of the burial site, as well as to receive their mortal remains. It also provides that all relevant authorities are obliged to provide families of the missing or disappeared ...click to read more
Keywords: Memorialisation | Search | Rehabilitation | Persons and groups affected | Reparation
Law Establishing a Mechanism for Paying Tribute to Victims of Forced Disappearance and Providing for Measures to Locate and Identify Them
The Law establishes, among a number of obligations, that the relatives of the victims are paid the necessary resources to cover funeral expenses, travel, lodging and food throughout the process of delivering bodies or remains. Victims' families are allowed to participate in the exhumation proceedings in which their relative is to be found. The competent authorities for identification, exhumation and investigation must provide the bodies or remains to the affected family in conditions of dignity, and the Ministry of Social Protection must ensure that the relatives of the victims who are identified receive psychosocial care. The Law further provides that, ...click to read more
Keywords: Compensation | Memorialisation | Reparation
Law on the definition of genocide, enforced disappearance, enforced displacement and torture
Article 1 of the Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: The individual belonging to an armed group outside the law, the public servant, or the individual acting under the determination or acquiescence of a public servant, who subjects another person to deprivation of their freedom in any form, followed by their concealment and the refusal to recognise such deprivation or to give information about their whereabouts, removing them from the protection of the law.
Keywords: State/non-State actors | Criminal offence of enforced disappearance
Enforced Disappearances Enquiry, Truth and Reconciliation Commission Act
Article 2(k) of the Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: Act of enforced disappearance means any of the following acts: a) not to produce before the adjudicating authority a person who is apprehended, detained or taken in custody in any other manner by the person or security personnel authorised to apprehend or make investigations or enforce the law, or not to allow the concerned persons to visit such a person even after lapse of the deadline to produce them before the adjudicating authority, or not to give information to the concerned persons as to where, how and under which condition ...click to read more
Keywords: State/non-State actors | Criminal offence of enforced disappearance
Definition of Enforced Disappearance
The Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: The term enforced disappearance relates to illegal arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty by an agent of the State or by a person or group of persons acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by the concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places such a person outside the protection of the law. Whoever illegally and without lawful authority commits, orders, solicits or induces the commission, attempts to commit, is ...click to read more
Keywords: Criminal offence of enforced disappearance
Anti-Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance Act
The Law provides that all persons detained or confined shall be placed in officially recognised and controlled places of detention or confinement, where an official up- to-date register of such persons is maintained. Relatives, lawyers, judges, official bodies and all persons who have a legitimate interest in the whereabouts and condition of the persons deprived of liberty shall have free access to such register. The register shall contain the following details: a) the identity or name, description and address of the person deprived of liberty; b) the date, time and location where the person was deprived of liberty and the ...click to read more
Keywords: Reparation | Compensation | Penalties | Criminal responsibility | Rehabilitation | Sanctions and mitigations | Criminal offence of enforced disappearance | Deprivation of liberty | Duty to Investigate | Protection of witnesses/victims | Satisfaction
Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act
The Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: Any public official who detains or abducts a person, and denies committing such act or conceals the fate or whereabouts of such person, resulting in the exclusion of the latter from legal protection. It also provides that the crime of enforced disappearance is a continuous offence until the fate of the disappeared person can be established, and that it cannot be considered a political offence for the purposes of extradition and international cooperation in criminal matters. The crime is aggravated and results in a higher penalty when it led to the victim’s serious ...click to read more
Keywords: Non-derogation | Urgent measures | Extradition | Crimes against humanity | State/non-State actors | Penalties | Criminal offence of enforced disappearance | Statute of limitations | Duty to Investigate
Criminal Offence of Enforced Disappearances
The Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: a) The public authority, whether civil or military, or any person in the service of the State that illegitimately deprives a person of liberty, and refuses to recognise the detention or to provide information about the fate or situation of the disappeared person, preventing the exercise of their rights; b) Members of groups or associations with terrorist, insurgent or subversive purposes, who, acting as members or collaborators of such groups or associations, forcibly disappear a person. A reduced penalty is provided for whoever acts as an accomplice or accessory to the crime of ...click to read more
Keywords: Non-derogation | Urgent measures | Extradition | State/non-State actors | Criminal responsibility | Sanctions and mitigations | Criminal offence of enforced disappearance | Statute of limitations | Duty to Investigate
Act on Missing Persons in the Homeland War
The Law provides that persons who went missing in the Homeland War between 1991 and 1995, including those who disappeared, are presumed to be alive until their burial place is identified or until they are declared dead following proof of their death. It also provides that family members of a missing person have the right to learn about their whereabouts or to find their mortal remains, and also to learn about the circumstances of their disappearance or death. The Ministry for Croatian Homeland War veterans is required to provide them with available information regarding the progress and results of the ...click to read more
Keywords: Search | Forensics / DNA | Protection of witnesses/victims
Definition of Enforced Disappearance
The Law defines enforced disappearance as follows: a) deprivation of liberty committed by anyone who, acting for political reasons under order, authorisation or support of State authorities, hides the victim's whereabouts, refuses to reveal their fate or to recognise their detention, or by any public official or employee who orders, authorises, supports or gives acquiescence to such action; b) deprivation of liberty committed by elements of the State security forces in the exercise of their position, even in the absence of political motive, when they act arbitrarily or with abuse or excess of force; c) kidnapping committed by members ...click to read more
Keywords: State/non-State actors | Criminal offence of enforced disappearance