A comparative analysis of how the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights approach enforced disappearances : towards a homogenization of their methods ?

Details

Supervisors

De Schutter, Olivier

Faculty

Faculté de droit et de criminologie

Degree label

Master [120] en droit

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to provide the reader with a comparative analysis of how the European Court of Human Rights and its Inter-American counterpart deal with enforced disappearances. The first part of this paper will be dedicated to a brief overview of the existing legal framework on enforced disappearances, focusing first on the universal level before moving on to the regional level. In the paper’s second part, a comparison of the European and of the Inter-American jurisprudence on enforced disappearance will take place. The first chapter of this second part will address the notion of enforced disappearance : how is this crime perceived in the Inter-American human rights system and how does it differ from the European system’s findings ? In the second chapter, the important question of how enforced disappearance can be proved will be tackled: the evidentiary standard used in each Court, the rules of admission of evidence and the burden of proof will all be dealt with. The third chapter will be about a few of the different rights that are violated when an enforced disappearance occurs. Considering the limited number of pages this paper may contain, the right to life, the right to humane treatment and the right to liberty and security are the only ones that will be presented. Then, the questions of how the violations of those rights can be established and how these violations can be tied back to the State will be answered. Last but not least, in the fourth chapter, we will address the issue of reparations and see how the Strasbourg Court and the San José Court attempt to account for the damages that are direct consequences of the provoked disappearance of a person.