whereabouts.144 Until 2000, the ECtHR required the applicant to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the victim had died before the Court would find a violation of the right to life under Article 2. However, in Timurtas v. Turkey, the ECtHR lowered the standard by dismissing the need for direct evidence and instead permitted the use of circumstantial evidence to establish a violation of the right to life.145 This approach was confirmed in Cicik v. Turkey, in which the Court held that circumstantial evidence would suffice for finding a violation of the right to life.146 peuple v. Burkina Faso, the Commission established a violation of Article 5 in relation to the disappearance of persons suspected or accused of plotting against the authorities.150 Moreover, in the case of Liesbeth Zegveld and Messie Ephrem v. Eritrea, the ACHPR considered that, “[o]f itself, prolonged incommunicado detention and/or solitary confinement could be held to be a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment”.151 Similarly, the HRCt recommends that States take steps to prohibit incommunicado detention.152 The UN Committee against Torture held that “detaining persons indefinitely without charge constitutes per se a violation of the [Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment].”153 Right to be free from torture and inhuman and degrading treatment International jurisprudence recognizes that ED constitutes a form of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, both in respect of the disappeared person and of their relatives.147 As stated in Article 1(2) of the 1992 Declaration: The HRCt has also held that the incommunicado detention of victims for a certain period of time was, in itself, a form of torture and ill-treatment, and therefore constituted a violation of Article 7 of the ICCPR (Prohibition of Torture, or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment).154 For instance, in the case of Brahim El-Boathi, an Algerian soldier who disappeared after being held incommunicado between 1994 and 2000, the HRCt considered that “the degree of suffering caused by being detained without contact with the outside world for an indefinite period” amounted to a violation of Article 7.155 “Any act of enforced disappearance places the persons subjected there outside the protection of the law and inflicts severe suffering on them and their families. It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia, 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 and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”148 According to the IACtHR, the mere subjection of an individual to prolonged isolation and deprivation of communication in itself is cruel and inhuman treatment.156 The IACtHR presumes that in such circumstances, the suffering of the disappeared person has reached a min- The prohibition of torture is enshrined in Article 5 of the African Charter.149 While the ACHPR has not issued comments or guidelines on ED as an act of torture, in Mouvement burkinabe des droits de l’homme et des 144 European Court of Human Rights (“ECtHR”), Bazorkina v. Russia, App. No. 69481/01, 27 July 2006, paras. 110-112. 145 ECtHR, Timurtaş v. Turkey, App. No. 23531/94, 13 June 2000, para. 82. 146 ECtHR, Varnava and Others v. Turkey, Appl. Nos. 16064/90, 16065/90, 16066/90, 16068/90, 16069/90, 16070/90, 16071/90, 16072/90 and 16073/90, 18 September 2009, para. 143. 147 International Commission of Jurists (“ICJ”), Enforced Disappearance and Extrajudicial Execution: The Rights of Family Members, A Practitioners’ Guide, Geneva, July 2016, p. 13; N.B., the ECtHR is an exception among the international mechanisms that deal with ED where it does not find a violation of the prohibition of torture with regard to disappeared persons, Article 3 European Convention on Human Rights (“ECHR”), but only with regard to the relatives. 148 UNGA, Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearances, supra note 2, Article 1(2). 149 African Charter, supra note 131, Article 5: “Every individual shall have the right to the respect of the dignity inherent in a human being and to the recognition of his legal status. All forms of exploitation and degradation of man, particularly slavery, slave trade, torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment and treatment shall be prohibited.” 150 ACHPR, Mouvement burkinabe des droits de l`homme et des peoples v Burkina Faso, supra note 131, para. 44. 151 ACHPR, Liesbeth Zegveld and Messie Ephrem v. Eritrea, 250/2002, 2003, para. 55. 152 HRCt, CCPR General Comment No. 20: Article 7 (Prohibition of Torture, or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment), 10 March 1992, para. 11. 153 UN Committee Against Torture (CAT), UN Committee against Torture: Conclusions and Recommendations, United States of America, 25 July 2006, CAT/C/USA/CO/2, para. 22. 154 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (“ICCPR"), Article 7: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. In particular, no one shall be subjected without his free consent to medical or scientific experimentation.” 155 HRCt, El-Boathi v Algeria, Communication No. 2259/2013, 16 May 2017, para. 7.6. 156 IACtHR, Velásquez Rodríguez v Honduras, Judgment, 29 July 1988, para. 187. 29