Since the first ED cases in Latin America, both the IACtHR185 and the HRCt have recognised that ED constitutes a violation of the right to liberty and security of the person, respectively enshrined in Article 7 of the American Convention on Human Rights and Article 9 of the ICCPR.186 In its case law on ED, the HRCt has consistently found that the intentional removal of a person from the protection of the law constitutes a refusal to recognise him or her as a person before the law, particularly if the efforts of his or her relatives to obtain access to potentially effective remedies have been systematically impeded.191 The ECtHR considers ED primarily as an aggravated violation of the right to liberty (Article 5 ECHR).187 The ECtHR has found a violation of Article 5 in every case of ED before it.188 Similarly, the WGEID has clarified that, “[e]nforced disappearances entail the denial of the disappeared person’s legal existence and, as a consequence, prevent him or her from enjoying all other human rights and freedoms.”192 The violation of the right to recognition as a person before the law lasts until the fate or the whereabouts of the person have been determined.193 Right to recognition as a person before the law The right to recognition as a person before the law is enshrined in Article 6 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 16 of the ICCPR, Article 5 of the African Charter, and Article 3 of the American Convention on Human Rights. The 1992 Declaration established in Article 1.2 that ED infringes the right to be recognised as a person before the law: While the IACtHR did not find a violation of Article 3 of the IACHR (Juridical Personality) in early cases of ED, they reconsidered their position in Anzualdo Castro v. Peru in 2009 to acknowledge that the crime constitutes an automatic violation of this right “to juridical personality”.194 This jurisprudence has remained unchanged in all later cases related to ED. “Any act of enforced disappearance places the persons subjected thereto outside the protection of the law […] It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia, the right to recognition as a person before the law […]”189 Right to a fair trial ED violates the right to a fair trial both with respect to the victim and their relatives. The right to a fair trial as defined in Article 14 of the ICCPR (Article 14) includes different guarantees for individuals, such as the right to equality before the courts; the right to a fair and public hearing by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal; the right of compensation in cases of miscarriage of justice in criminal cases; and the right to remain free from being tried or punished again for an offence for which an individual has already been finally convicted or acquitted.195 The African Charter jointly considers the prohibition of torture and right to be recognised as a person before the law in Article 5. Closely connected to the “respect for the dignity inherent in the human person”, the recognition of the legal status of the person was found to be violated for the victims of ED in the Mouvement Burkinabé case.190 185 IACtHR, Velásquez Rodríguez v Honduras, supra note 156, para.155. 186 IACtHR, Velásquez Rodríguez v Honduras, supra note 156, paras.155 and 187; HRCt, Bleier Lewenhoff v Uruguay, Communication No. 30/1978, 29 March 1982, para.15. 187 For instance, in Kurt v Turkey, supra note 174, the Court found a violation of the right to liberty with respect of the applicant’s son who had disappeared at the hands of the security forces, but the Court did not find any additional violations of the rights enshrined in the ECHR. See also Council of Europe, PACE, ‘Enforced Disappearances: Report of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights by M. Pourgourides’, 19 September 2005, Doc. 10679). ECtHR, Kurt v. Turkey, supra note 174, para. 129; Çiçek v. Turkey, Appl. no. 25704/94, 27 February 2001, para. 156. 188 Council of Europe, ‘Missing persons and victims of enforced disappearance in Europe’, supra note 10, p. 38. 189 UNGA, Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances, supra note 2, Article 1(2). 190 ACHPR, Institute for Human Rights and Development in Africa and Others v Democratic Republic of Congo, supra note 158, para. 44. 191 See for instance, HRCt, Basnet v. Nepal, Communication No. 2164/2012, 12 July 2016, para. 10.9; Khirani v. Algeria, Communication No. 1905/2009, para. 7.8; Zarzi v. Algeria, Communication 1780/2008, 22 March 2011, para. 7.9; Grioua v. Algeria, Communication 1327/2004, 10 July 2007, para. 7.8. 192 WGEID Report, General Comment on the right to recognition as a person before the law in the context of enforced disappearances, A/HRC/19/58/ Rev.1, 2 March 2012, para. 2. 193 Ibid, para. 4. 194 IACtHR, Anzualdo Castro v. Peru, Series C, No. 202, 22 September 2009, para. 101. 195 ICCPR, supra note 154, Article 14. 32