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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Mahera Sajid v. Station House Officer et al.
The Court recalled that the State is responsible for protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and that the practice of enforced disappearance leads to the erosion of the State's legal authority. It added that, although enforced disappearance is not defined in the domestic legislation of the country, it results in multiple violations of fundamental rights and amounts to one of the most heinous crimes, which cannot be justified on any grounds and ought to be given the highest priority. The Court recalled how in cases of enforced disappearance the State is responsible for demonstrating its good faith in taking ...click to read more
Deprivation of Liberty | Relatives as Victims | Duty to Investigate | Reparations | Burden of Proof | Obligation to Prevent
Prosecutor v. Simić (Đorđe)
The Court established that the accused was involved in bringing the victim to the barracks for questioning, following orders from his superior. However, it did not find that the accused had the requisite special intention to commit the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance. This was because he could not have envisaged the treatment of the victim after he was brought to the barracks. The Court held that in the absence of a pattern of disappearances or detentions, it was not possible to infer that the accused had the intent to remove the victim from the protection of the law ...click to read more
Evidence | Systemic Practice | Burden of Proof | Crimes Against Humanity
Situation in the Republic of Burundi (Decision Pursuant to Article 15 of the Rome Statute on the Authorization of an Investigation)
In this Pre-Trial Chamber decision, the Chamber did not make a final finding on the commission of the crime against humanity of enforced disappearance. Rather, in light of the evidentiary threshold required for the authorisation of an investigation, the Chamber found a reasonable basis to believe that the crime of enforced disappearance was committed by security forces and members of the ruling party against civilians who opposed or were perceived to oppose the ruling party, as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population. The Chamber held that the victims were removed from the protection of the ...click to read more
Deprivation of Liberty | Burden of Proof | Crimes Against Humanity
Gutiérrez Hernández et al. v. Guatemala
The Court recalled that when a person disappears because their whereabouts are unknown, this is not the same as an enforced disappearance, which is a phenomenon constituted of specific elements including the involvement or acquiescence of State agents. In this case, however, the Court found that as the investigations were not carried out with due diligence, it was impossible to rule out the possibility that what happened to the victim had been an enforced disappearance. The Court highlighted that the State made a stereotyped assessment of Ms. Mayra Gutiérrez and prejudged the motive for the disappearance, focusing the investigation on her ...click to read more
Judicial Protection | Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy
Follow-up report on individual communications – Yrusta v. Argentina (1)
The Committee noted unsatisfactory implementation of its recommendations by the state party. As a result, the rights of the applicants of the communication are being persistently and increasingly violated.
Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Guarantees of Non-Repetition
Vereda La Esperanza v. Colombia
The Court confirmed that the events occurred with the support and acquiescence provided by agents of the security forces to the paramilitary group. The State acknowledged its international responsibility for the failure to guarantee the rights to recognition as a person before the law; life; personal integrity; and personal liberty of 12 disappeared victims, including three children. After having considered the Prosecutor’s Office’s approach to the disappearance (namely, its use of a “prioritisation” mechanism in the case), the Court concluded that the Office had not proceeded with the investigation inappropriately. The Court also concluded that it did not have sufficient ...click to read more
Effective Remedy | Judicial Protection | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth
Salas Wenzel et al.
The Court established that the security forces were responsible for the victims' disappearances. In light of the magnitude of the operation in question, which was composed of different stages including arrest, confinement, interrogation, a request for a helicopter and transferring the victims, the Court inferred the participation of members of the National Information Centre, Army Intelligence Battalion and Aviation Command. Their actions were united by the one and same unique criminal purpose: kidnapping, irregular deprivation of liberty and subsequent disappearance of the victims. The Court found that it was impossible for those involved to have been ignorant of the fact ...click to read more
Deprivation of Liberty | Reparations | Statute of Limitations | Crimes Against Humanity
Vásquez Durand et al. v. Ecuador
The Court emphasised that since it was clear that the disappearance occurred during an international armed conflict, it was appropriate to interpret the scope of treaty obligations in light of the rules of International Humanitarian Law. In response to the State's argument that there was no immigration record of Mr. Vásquez Durand's reentry into Ecuador under the elements of the crime of disappearance, the Court noted that the absence of a record of the victim's detention was not evidence that he was not detained. This is because the lack of information may be part of the authorities' refusal to acknowledge the ...click to read more
Judicial Protection | Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Burden of Proof
Members of Chichupac Village and Neighboring Communities of the Municipality of Rabinal v. Guatemala
The Court analysed the situation of 81 persons whose enforced disappearance was alleged. It found that enforced disappearance could not be established for 59 of these persons, including due to the fact that there did not appear to have been any attempt by State agents to conceal their death, to erase all traces of the bodies to prevent their identification, to prevent their fate and whereabouts from being established, or to eliminate evidence of what happened. The Court recalled the difference between extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances, and their nature as independent and separate human rights violations. The Court further ...click to read more
Evidence | Children/Youth | Systemic Practice | Indigenous Peoples | Right to Know the Truth
Tenorio Roca et al. v. Peru
The Court stressed that the case of Mr. Tenorio Roco was not isolated but was part of a generalised context of enforced disappearances in which a modus operandi was established by the military, within the framework of a counter-subversive strategy. The Court concluded that the State violated the right to a hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal previously established by law, as the investigations related to the enforced disappearance of Mr. Tenorio Roca had been processed before the military courts. Further, the Court concluded that during the period in which the amnesty laws were applied, the State failed ...click to read more
Judicial Protection | Systemic Practice | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Amnesties