Jurisprudence Database
The Jurisprudence Database sets out leading judgments and commentary by international and domestic legal mechanisms in the field of enforced disappearances. It summarises factual and legal findings and identifies common themes and search terms allowing for a comparative cross-jurisdictional analysis of this area of law. 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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Gómez Palomino v. Peru
The Court found that domestic legislation on enforced disappearances did not to meet the requisite minimum standard. It noted that domestic laws must ensure that those who commit enforced disappearances, their accomplices and their accessories are punished, regardless of whether they are state agents, or persons or groups acting with the authorisation, support or acquiescence of the state. The definition also lacked a crucial element - the refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty and to provide information about the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. The Court further found that the definition attempted to shift the burden of ...click to read more
Burden of Proof | Obligation to Criminalise | State/Non-State Agents | Guarantees Against Impunity
Yurich v. Chile
The Committee noted that the original acts of arrest, detention or abduction, as well as the refusal to give information about the deprivation of freedom occurred before the entry into force of the Covenant and Optional Protocol for the state party. Accordingly, the Committee considers that even if the Chilean courts regard enforced disappearance as a continuing offence, the communication is inadmissible under ratione temporis basis.
Relatives as Victims | Admissibility
Peasant Community of Santa Bárbara v. Peru
The Court found that the State made a partial acknowledgement of the facts and of international responsibility, and therefore found that the matter remained in dispute with respect to issues of fact and certain legal claims. Regarding legal claims, the Court considered that controversy remained as to whether the facts should be legally classified as "extrajudicial execution" or "enforced disappearance". Disputes also remained on the scope of the violations of the rights to life, personal integrity and personal liberty, as well as the special protection of children recognised by the State. The Court recalled that enforced disappearance often includes the ...click to read more
Evidence | Children/Youth | Crimes Against Humanity | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Amnesties
Aliboeva v. Tajikistan
The Committee made a finding of inhuman treatment with respect to the victim's wife, due to the fact that the authorities failed to inform her about her husband’s execution and burial place and instead continued to acknowledge her intercessions on his behalf following the execution. It also recalled that the secrecy surrounding the date of execution and place of burial, as well as the refusal to hand over the body for burial, have the effect of intimidating or punishing families by intentionally leaving them in a state of uncertainty and mental distress.
Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth
Mapiripán Massacre v. Colombia
The Court noted that the State had accepted responsibility for violating the rights to life, to humane treatment and to personal liberty in relation to 12 victims only, and found that this limited admission was inconsistent with the State’s admission of responsibility for the wider massacre in which at least 49 individuals had been killed. As regards the violations of the rights to humane treatment and personal liberty, the Court held that it was possible to draw an inference from the facts that the victims had been arbitrarily deprived of their liberty, and subjected to torture or grave cruel, inhumane ...click to read more
Children/Youth | Judicial Protection | State/Non-State Agents | Effective Remedy
Serrano Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador
The Court restated the three elements which determine whether the time frame within which proceedings were conducted was reasonable: a) the case's complexity; b) the procedural activity of the interested party; and c) the conduct of the judicial authorities. In this regard the Court found that the prolonged delay in proceedings constituted, in itself, a violation of the right to a fair trial. The Court ordered the State to provide the medical and psychological treatment required by the next of kin of the victims free of charge. This was to include any medicines they required, taking into consideration the health problems of each one, ...click to read more
Right to Know the Truth | Duty to Investigate | Reparations | Children/Youth | Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection | Juridical Personality | Relatives as Victims
Koku v. Turkey
The Court was unable to make a finding as to who was responsible for the victim's disappearance, due to the contradictory versions of events put forward by the applicant which made it impossible to shift the burden of proof onto the State. The Court argued that, although there was no proof that the victim has been killed, the disappearance and unacknowledged detention of a person suspected by the authorities of PKK involvement could be considered life-threatening in the context of south-east Turkey in 1993, finding that the authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation into the victim's disappearance. ...click to read more
Deprivation of Liberty | Evidence | State/Non-State Agents | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Obligation to Prevent
Togcu v. Turkey
The Court was unable to make a finding as to who was responsible for the victim's disappearance, due to the contradictory versions of events put forward by the applicant which made it impossible to shift the burden of proof onto the State. The Court stated that, although there was no proof that the victim has been killed, the disappearance and unacknowledged detention of a person suspected by the authorities of PKK involvement could be considered life-threatening in the context of south-east Turkey in 1993, finding that the authorities had failed to carry out an effective investigation into the victim's disappearance. ...click to read more
Evidence | State/Non-State Agents | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Burden of Proof | Deprivation of Liberty
Simón et al.
The Court held that systematic violations of human rights, such as those that occurred in the country between 1976 and 1983, called for a search for historical truth as the first step to the moral reconstructing of the social fabric and the institutional mechanisms of the State. It added that this process could not be completed solely by investigating the truth, but must also include sanctioning those responsible. It found that it was the task of the Public Prosecutor's Office, as the custodian of legality and of the general interests of society, to guarantee to victims' right to know the ...click to read more
Duty to Prosecute | Punishment | Amnesties | Statute of Limitations | Deprivation of Liberty | Crimes Against Humanity | Jus Cogens | Systemic Practice | Right to Know the Truth | Duty to Investigate
General Comment on the treatment of unaccompanied and separated children outside of their country of origin
The General Comment provides guidance to state parties on their obligations to protect, provide care and proper treatment to unaccompanied and separated children subject to their jurisdiction. The obligations are embedded in the legal framework provided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, with particular reference to the principles of non-discrimination, the best interests of the child and the right of the child to express their views freely.
Children/Youth | Refugees and Migrants