Time for Enforced Disappearance to Disappear. A Study of the International Legal Instruments Addressing Enforced Disappearance

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this study is to examine the international legal instruments specifically addressing the practice of enforced disappearance and analyse if they are sufficient in relation to the gravity and seriousness of the crime. The instruments examined are: the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons and the Statute of the International Criminal Court. The analysis is done by examining some of the most crucial elements of the instruments: definition, disappearance as a crime against humanity, domestic legal responsibilities, the victim and the monitoring mechanisms. The jurisprudence of cases concerning the Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons in the Inter-American Court is also examined. The conclusion of the study is that the UN Convention contains some very innovative and progressive parts and will seal many of the current gaps in the protection against enforced disappearance, but it is dependent on the number of states ratifying the Convention. Also, the preventive effect of the ICC might not be as significant as it could be because of the rigid requirements in the definition.