Article 4
1. All acts of enforced disappearance shall be offences under
criminal law punishable by appropriate penalties which shall take into
account their extreme seriousness.
2. Mitigating circumstances may be established in national legislation
for persons who, having participated in enforced disappearances, are
instrumental in bringing the victims forward alive or in providing voluntarily
information which would contribute to clarifying cases of enforced
disappearance.
Article 5
In addition to such criminal penalties as are applicable, enforced
disappearances render their perpetrators and the State or State authorities
which organize, acquiesce in or tolerate such disappearances liable under
civil law, without prejudice to the international responsibility of the State
concerned in accordance with the principles of international law.
Article 6
1. No order or instruction of any public authority, civilian, military or
other, may be invoked to justify an enforced disappearance. Any person
receiving such an order or instruction shall have the right and duty not to
obey it.
2. Each State shall ensure that orders or instructions directing,
authorizing or encouraging any enforced disappearance are prohibited.
3. Training of law enforcement officials shall emphasize the
provisions in paragraphs 1 and 2 of the present article.
Article 7
No circumstances whatsoever, whether a threat of war, a state of war,
internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked
to justify enforced disappearances.
Article 8
1. No State shall expel, return (refouler) or extradite a person to
another State where there are substantial grounds to believe that he
would be in danger of enforced disappearance.
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