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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Akdeniz v. Turkey
The Court confirmed that the amount of time passed since the victim was last seen, the life threatening nature of the unacknowledged detention, and evidence of widespread impunity were factors for the Court to consider when determining whether the victim could be presumed dead while in state detention. The Court also provided a detailed overview of the elements required for an investigation under Article 2 to be considered effective and noted with concern the failure of the authorities to question the soldiers and commanders in charge of the operation. Finally the Court found that an effective remedy as enshrined in ...click to read more
Relatives as Victims | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Guarantees Against Impunity | Punishment
Khalilova v. Tajikistan
The Committee made a finding of inhuman treatment of the victim's mother due to the authorities’ initial failure to notify her of the victim's execution and because of the secrecy surrounding the date of execution and the place of burial, which had the effect of intimidating or punishing her by intentionally leaving her in a state of uncertainty and mental distress.
Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Interim/Urgent Measures
Gabriel Orlando Vera Navarrete
The Court held that the State should not tolerate impunity for serious crimes and violations of human rights, in light of both an ethical obligation derived from the rule of law and of international instruments it ratified, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights. It stated that the failure to sanction such violations violates the right to judicial protection. The Court found the rules of international humanitarian law relating to internal armed conflicts applicable to the present case and recalled that they prohibit actions that result in disappearance, as well as ...click to read more
Guarantees Against Impunity | Crimes Against Humanity | Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection | Systemic Practice | Relatives as Victims | Duty to Investigate
Laureani Maturana and Krassnoff Marchenko (Sandoval Rodríguez) (Supreme Court)
The Court found that the victim's apprehension could not be classed as "illegal detention" due to the fact that a detention by authorities can only occur within proper public function and justified by proper motives. There was no evidence that the victim was arrested or deprived of his liberty due to a crime he had committed or that he had been taken before any court for prosecution. In the absence of proof of the victim's death, the Court found that the crime was still ongoing. Highlighting how a statute of limitations can only start once the crime has ended, the ...click to read more
Punishment | Amnesties | Statute of Limitations | Deprivation of Liberty
Arancibia Clavel
The Court classified Mr. Arancibia Clavel's conduct as a crime against humanity ("illicit association), since the group that he was a part of was aimed at persecuting political opponents by means of homicide, enforced disappearances and torture committed with the acquiesence of State officials. It recalled that the International Criminal Court's Rome Statute's definition of a crime against humanity includes any action contributing to the commission, or attempt to commit the crime, by a group of people having a common purpose. The Court added that if homicides, torture and enforced disappearance are considered crimes against humanity, then forming part of ...click to read more
Duty to Prosecute | Statute of Limitations | Crimes Against Humanity | Jus Cogens
19 Merchants v. Colombia
The Court found that, given the brutality with which the bodies of the victims were treated after their execution, it was possible to infer that their treatment while alive was also extremely violent, such that they could have feared and foreseen that they would be deprived of their lives arbitrarily and violently, which constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. The Court recalled that States must prevent the violation of the right to life and, in particular, prevent their agents/security forces from committing arbitrary executions. The Court found the state responsible for the violation of the right to life of the ...click to read more
State/Non-State Agents | Duty to Investigate | Guarantees Against Impunity | Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection
Ipek v. Turkey
The Court reiterated that the burden of proof rests on the authorities to provide a convincing explanation regarding persons being detained within their control, as strong presumptions of fact will arise in respect of injuries and death occurring during that detention. Taking into account that the victims were last seen in the hands of the security forces and that no information was provided on their whereabouts for a long time, and given that the situation in south-east Turkey at the time of the events fostered lack of accountability of the security forces, the Court held that the victims must be ...click to read more
Duty to Investigate | Burden of Proof | Deprivation of Liberty | Evidence | Judicial Protection | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims | State/Non-State Agents
Molina Theissen v. Guatemala
The Court ordered the State to create an expeditious procedure to obtain a declaration of absence and presumption of death due to enforced disappearance and adopt the legislative, administrative and any other measures necessary to create a genetic information system.
Children/Youth | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Duty to Investigate
Genaro Villegas Namuche
The Court held that, although at the time of the events enforced disappearance was not a crime under domestic legislation, the victim's rights were included in the Constitution and the international instruments signed and ratified by Peru. It added that since enforced disappearance is a permanent crime until the whereabouts of the victim are established, the law criminalising it (which entered into force after the abduction) could be applied. The Court found that the right to the truth had been violated. It held that the right to the truth to be an inalienable collective legal right, holding that the country ...click to read more
Judicial Protection | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Guarantees Against Impunity | Statute of Limitations | Crimes Against Humanity
Laureani Maturana and Krassnoff Marchenko (Sandoval Rodríguez) (Appeals)
"The Court found that the victim’s detention amounted to the crime of ""qualified kidnapping"" in domestic law, but did not find it prove that this resulted in the victim's death. The Court held that the crime of kidnapping corresponded to the crime of enforced disappearance as defined in the Inter-American Convention on the Enforced Disappearance of Persons. The Court highlighted how Chile, as a party to that treaty, was obliged not to frustrate its object and purpose. It added that, although the Inter-American Convention had not been incorporated into domestic law, enforced disappearance constituted a serious offense to inalienable human ...click to read more
Crimes Against Humanity | Deprivation of Liberty