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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Rosa Maria Serna and Others v. Colombia
The Committee was satisfied that the victim's disappearance was attributable to the State, in light of the fact that enforced disappearance was a widespread practice used by paramilitary groups in the relevant period with the complicity of the armed forces. The State had also encouraged the establishment of “self-defence” groups and provided them with training, weapons and logistical support. The Committee made a finding of inhuman treatment regarding the victims' families, as they experienced severe stress as a result of the disappearance of their loved ones and the uncertainty surrounding their fate and whereabouts. Finally, the Committee found a violation ...click to read more
Juridical Personality | Systemic Practice | Relatives as Victims | State/Non-State Agents | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute
Tharu et al. v. Nepal
The Committee found that the State did not explain the specific circumstances of the alleged death of the victims, concluding that it failed in its duty to protect their lives. It further made a finding of inhuman treatment both in relation to the enforced disappearance of the victims, recognising the suffering involved in being held indefinitely without contact with the outside world, and in relation to their relatives, in light of the fact that they have never received sufficient explanation concerning the circumstances of the victims' alleged death or access to their remains. The Committee also found that the victims' ...click to read more
Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Interim/Urgent Measures | Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection | Juridical Personality | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims
Guerrero Larez v. Venezuela
The Committee held that the State is under a special obligation to ensure that persons deprived of their liberty can exercise their rights, and that such special responsibility derives from the extent of the control that prison authorities exercise over persons serving a custodial sentence. The Committee found a violation of the obligation to take effective measures to prevent the practice of torture in prisons and, in particular, to protect inmates from becoming victims of disappearance. It also found that acts of cruel and inhuman treatment were committed against the victim's relatives, due to the anguish and distress caused by ...click to read more
Relatives as Victims | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Obligation to Prevent | Interim/Urgent Measures | Deprivation of Liberty
Katwal v. Nepal
The Committee found that the victim's killing in army custody and the lack of effective investigation by the State constituted a violation of his right to life, in light of the fact that after 13 years the circumstances of the victim's death had not been clarified and the perpetrators had not been held accountable. The Committee made a finding of inhuman treatment with respect to the victim, in light of the acts of torture to which he was exposed and his incommunicado detention. It also made such a finding with respect to his family, in light of the anguish caused ...click to read more
Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Deprivation of Liberty | Reparations | Judicial Protection | Juridical Personality | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth
Husayn v. Poland
The Court was satisfied that the State knew of the nature and purposes of the CIA’s activities on its territory and that, by enabling the CIA to use its airspace and the airport, by its complicity in disguising the movements of aircrafts, and by its provision of logistics and services, it cooperated in the preparation and execution of the CIA operations on its territory. It further held that the State ought to have known that, by enabling the CIA to detain terrorist suspects on its territory, it was exposing them to a serious risk of treatment contrary to the Convention. ...click to read more
State/Non-State Agents | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Extraterritorial Jurisdiction | Reparations | Deprivation of Liberty | Burden of Proof | Evidence | Judicial Protection | Systemic Practice
Statement on enforced disappearances and military jurisdiction
The Committee reaffirms that cases of enforced disappearance should remain outside of military jurisdiction that could limit the effectiveness of investigations, prosecutions and trials. Such cases should be investigated and prosecuted by or under the control of civil authorities and tried only by ordinary courts.
Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Punishment | Judicial Protection
Fadel v. Switzerland
The Committee found that the state party had failed to determine whether there were substantial grounds for believing that the victim risked being subjected to torture if he was expelled. The Committee also noted that the victim faced a risk of being arrested and tortured again if returned to his country of origin, where he is regarded as a fugitive, even if the charges against him, the proof of those charges and his conviction in absentia are not known with any certainty. Such risk arises also from widespread acts of impunity for torture and ill-treatment in country’s prisons.
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction | Burden of Proof | Refugees and Migrants
Rodríguez Vera et al. v. Colombia
The Court considered that the State had breached the guarantee of an ordinary, independent and impartial judge, as investigations were initiated in the military criminal jurisdictions. The Court found that Colombia had failed to comply with a number of its obligations, including to initiate an ex officio, immediate and effective investigation; to act with due diligence in the first steps of the investigation; to carry out the necessary search activities to locate the whereabouts of the disappeared persons; and to clarify what had happened. The Court also found that the investigation of these events did not comply with the obligation ...click to read more
Judicial Protection | Right to Know the Truth | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute
Boughera Kroumi v. Algeria
The Committee found that the State had failed in its duty to protect the victim's life, reaffirming that in cases of enforced disappearance the unacknowledged deprivation of liberty removes the person from the protection of the law and places their life at serious and constant risk. It also made a finding of inhuman treatment both with respect to the victim, in light of the suffering involved in being held indefinitely without contact with the outside world and of the appalling conditions in which he had been detained, and with respect to his father, due to the anguish and distress caused ...click to read more
Duty to Prosecute | Amnesties | Deprivation of Liberty | Interim/Urgent Measures | Judicial Protection | Juridical Personality | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate
Allioua and Kerouane v. Algeria
The Committee found that the State had failed in its duty to protect the victim's life, reaffirming that in cases of enforced disappearance the unacknowledged deprivation of liberty removes the person from the protection of the law and places his/her life at serious and constant risk. The Committee made a finding of inhuman treatment both with respect to the victims, in light of the suffering involved in being held indefinitely without contact with the outside world and of the allegations of torture suffered by one of them, and with respect to their family, due to the anguish and distress caused ...click to read more
Deprivation of Liberty | Judicial Protection | Juridical Personality | Refusal to Disclose Fate | Relatives as Victims | Right to Know the Truth | Effective Remedy | Duty to Investigate | Duty to Prosecute | Interim/Urgent Measures | Children/Youth