A/HRC/22/45
and loss of earnings, harm to reputation and costs required for legal or expert assistance.30
The Working Group further emphasizes the fact that, as civil responsibility of the State is
generated by the seriousness of the crime of enforced disappearance, the passing of time
should not be an obstacle for the progress of civil demands through the application of
statutes of limitation.31
3.
Rehabilitation
59.
Rehabilitation is an essential component of reparation. Article 19 of the Declaration
refers to a ―as complete a rehabilitation as possible‖ for the victims of acts of enforced
disappearance and their family. Rehabilitation measures and programmes should be
established and be easily accessible for victims and their families.
60.
The Basic Principles and Guidelines on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for
Victims of Gross Violations of International Human Rights Law and Serious Violations of
International Humanitarian Law provide that ―rehabilitation should include medical and
psychological care as well as legal and social services‖.32 The particular circumstances and
needs of each victim must be taken into account when providing psychological or
psychiatric treatment. The treatment may be individual, collective or a family one. 33
61.
The Working Group also emphasizes that measures should be taken to ensure that
members of families of disappeared persons are entitled to social benefits and other
measures of social support irrespective of where they live, including health care, special
education programmes and psychological assistance.34
4.
Satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition
62.
Of the above-mentioned Basic Principles and Guidelines, principle 22, on measures
of satisfaction, makes specific reference to a measure relating to enforced disappearance,
namely, ―the search for the whereabouts of the disappeared, for the identities of the children
abducted, and for the bodies of those killed, and assistance in the recovery, identification
and reburial of the bodies in accordance with the expressed or presumed wish of the
victims, or the cultural practices of the families and communities‖. The Working Group
emphasizes that the search for the truth, including the obligation to investigate the facts and
to identify, prosecute and, where appropriate, punish those responsible, is also a form of
satisfaction for the victims.35 It also emphasizes that procedural rights to an investigation, to
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
12
Salvador (see footnote 25), para. 227. See also Case of the “Street children”(Villagran Morales et al.
v. Guatemala), reparation and costs, judgement of 26 May 2001, para. 84.
See for example Inter-American Court of Human Rights Case of Gelman v. Uruguay, judgement of
24 February 2011, para. 293, where the Court recognized the loss of income of the victim, who was
only 19 years old at the time of her disappearance and a university student.
A/HRC/19/58/Add.1, para. 63.
A/HRC/22/45/Add.1, para. 47.
Principle 21. In the Barrios Altos case (Chumbipuma Aguirre et al. v. Peru), 2001, para. 40, the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights approved the agreement signed by the State and the victims
wherein the State recognized its obligation to provide ―diagnostic procedures, medicines, specialized
aid, hospitalisation, surgeries, labouring, traumatic rehabilitation and mental health.‖
See Contreras et Al. v. El Salvador (see footnote 25), para. 200.
A/HRC/16/48/Add.1, para. 84 (c).
See for example A/HRC/16/48/Add.2, para. 8. Principle 4 of the Updated set of principles for the
protection and promotion of human rights through action to combat impunity
(E/CN.4/2005/102/Add.1) states that ―Irrespective of any legal proceedings, victims and their families
have the imprescriptible right to know the truth about the circumstances in which violations took
place and, in the event of death or disappearance, the victims‘ fate‖.