State Obligations Regarding Forced Disappearances in the Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights, faced with the widespread practice of forced disappearances of persons in Latin American countries during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, primarily promoted by dictatorial governments and democratically elected civilian governments, established the international responsibility of States for the commission of this crime, and grounded its rulings in the obligation to respect and guarantee human rights that States Parties assumed upon signing the American Convention on Human Rights. These general and specific obligations must be fulfilled by the domestic legal order of each State in order to protect the fundamental rights of direct and indirect victims and to prevent impunity for the perpetrators and the chronic repetition of human rights violations.