Document Type

Article

Disciplines

International Law

Abstract

The term "disappearances" 1 (in Spanish desaparecido or "to have disappeared") was first used to describe the plight of the victims of Latin American death squads in the 1960s.1 It is estimated that 90,000 people have disappeared in Latin America alone over the past two decades3 and, in recent years, the practice has spread to Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Disappearances have been characterized as "the highest stage of political repression, because [they] immediately hinder[] the application of legal codes established for the defense of personal freedom, physical integrity, human dignity, and life itself." Once an individual is abducted, authorities exercise "total power over the prisoner, torturing or even eliminating him at will."

Brutality is a common element of all disappearances. In Chile, where over 1,500 individuals have disappeared since 1973, unidentified bodies are found with "signs of mutilation, especially of the fingers and hands, and many appear to have been bound with wire."7 Amnesty International reports that, during the Argentine Junta's "dirty war" against subversion, unidentified bodies regularly were found "floating in rivers, at the bottom of lakes, decomposing on rubbish dumps or blown to pieces in quarries."

This essay outlines the practice of disappearances, describes the activities of the United Nations Working Group On Enforced And Involuntary Disappearances and concludes by arguing for the drafting of a United Nations Convention On The Prevention And Punishment Of The Crime Of Enforced And Involuntary Disappearances.

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