ED is a unique and integrated series of acts that represent a continuous violation of several fundamental rights and renders the victim defenceless. ED is particularly serious when committed as part of a systematic pattern or practice which is applied or tolerated by the State.123 The 1992 Declaration defines ED as an offence to human dignity and a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia: Considering its gravity, as well as the crime’s impact on the victim, their family and other persons directly impacted, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (“IACtHR”) has determined that the prohibition of ED is absolute and should be considered a peremptory norm.127 The same Court has also concluded that the obligation of the State to investigate and punish the perpetrators of ED has also reached the status of jus cogens.128 The jus cogens nature of the prohibition of ED, as well as the obligation of the State to investigate and punish ED, was reiterated by the Council of Europe.129 • the right to recognition as a person before the law; • the right to liberty and security of the person; and The following sub-sections explore in more detail the rights that are often linked to ED, including an overview of existing international, African and comparative jurisprudence. The list of rights included should not be read as exhaustive. • the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. ED also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life,124 right to truth, and economic, cultural and social rights, among others. Despite the fact that ED breaches multiple rights, it is considered a consolidated act and not a combination of distinct acts.125 Right to life The ACHPR has commented that the crime of ED constitutes a serious threat to the right to life130 and, where the disappearance results in the person’s death, the ACHPR has held that it constitutes both a substantive and a procedural violation of the right to life under Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.131 Under international human rights law, ED is a permanent crime and a continuous human rights violation, which starts at the time of abduction and refusal to acknowledge the whereabouts of the victim and extends until the victim’s fate or whereabouts are established.126 This implies that the State will be responsible for the disappearance of a person as long as their whereabouts are unknown, even if the act took place before the State ratified a particular international treaty. According to General Comment No. 36 of the UN Human Rights Committee (“HRCt”), the right to life is the “supreme right from which no derogation is permitted, even in the situations of armed conflict, and other public emergencies that threaten the life 123 Inter-American Court of Human Rights ("IACtHR"), Case of Anzualdo Castro v. Peru. Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparations and Costs. Judgment of 22 September 2009. Series C No. 202, para. 59; HRC, Report of the WGEID, in the context of continuous crime, UN Doc A/HRC/16/48, 26 January 2011, p. 11: The WGEID has noted that, “even though the conduct violates several rights, including the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life, the Working Group considers that an enforced disappearance is a unique and consolidated act, and not a combination of acts”. 124 UN General Assembly, Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, A/RES/47/133, 12 February 1993, Article 1.2. 125 HRC, Report of the WGEID, General Comment on Enforced Disappearance as a Continuous Crime, A/HRC/16/48, 26 January 2011, para. 39. 126 Ibid, para 1. 127 IACtHR, Goiburú et al. v. Paraguay, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment of 22 September 2006, Series C No. 153, para. 84. 128 Ibid., para. 84; Diana Contreras-Garduno and Ignacio Alvarez-Rio, A Barren Effort? The Jurisprudence of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on Jus Cogens. 129 Council of Europe, Missing persons and victims of enforced disappearance in Europe, March 2016 130 ACHPR, General Comment No. 3 on the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: The Right to Life, Article 4, para. 8; HRC, General Comment No. 36 (2018) on Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, on the Right to Life, CCPR/C/GC/36, 30 October 2018, para. 58. 131 African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, Article 4: “Human beings are inviolable. Every human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right.” In 2001, the Commission dealt inter alia with the ED of two students and a university lecturer in the 1980s and 1990s, whose fate remained unknown at the date of the submission and eventually found a violation of Article 4 (ACHPR, Mouvement burkinabe des droits de l`homme et des peoples v. Burkina Faso, 204/97, 7 May 2001, para. 42); In 2017, in the case of massacres and enforced disappearance in Kilwa (Democratic Republic of Congo), the Commission held that ED constituted a violation to the right to life. The decision relied on the fact that “victims had not returned to their families almost five years after the incidents” and on the testimonies of the survivors (ACHPR, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and Others v. Democratic Republic of Congo, Communication 393/10, 18 June 2016, para. 106). 27