KURT JUDGMENT OF 25 MAY 1998
17
1994, Committee’s views under Article 5 § 4 of the Optional Protocol to the
ICCPR concerning communication no. 449/1991: Human Rights Law
Journal (“HRLJ”) vol. 17 nos. 1–2, p. 18; Bautista v. Colombia, decision of
27 October 1995, Committee’s views under Article 5 § 4 of the Optional
Protocol to the ICCPR concerning communication no. 563/1993: HRLJ
vol. 17 nos. 1–2, p. 19).
C. Material from the Organisation of American States (OAS)
66. The Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons
(resolution adopted at the 7th Plenary Session by the General Assembly,
9 June 1994, OAS/Ser. P AG/doc. 3114/94 rev.1: not yet in force) provides,
inter alia:
“Preamble
… Considering that the forced disappearance of persons constitutes an extremely
serious form of repression, one that violates basic human rights enshrined in the
American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the
American Convention on Human Rights,
…
Article 2
For the purposes of this Convention, forced disappearance is understood to be the
abduction or detention of any person by an agent of a State or by a person acting with
the consent or acquiescence of a State in circumstances where, after a reasonable
period of time there has been made available no information that would permit the
determination of the fate or whereabouts of the person abducted or detained.
…
Article 4
The forced disappearance of a person is a crime against humanity. Under the terms
of this Convention, it engages the personal responsibility of its perpetrators and the
responsibility of the State whose authorities executed the disappearance or consented
to it.
…