Yrusta v. Argentina: Short Term Enforced Disappearance

Abstract

The article comments on the first view of the Committee against enforced disappearance. According to the Committee, the concealment, for more than seven days, of the whereabouts of a person that was initially legitimately deprived of liberty, and serving his sentence in an official prison, constitutes enforced disappearance and secret detention, in the light of the International Convention for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearances. The article illustrates the application to the case submitted to the Committee of some of the important progress and novel aspects introduced by this Convention in order to enhance the international protection against enforced disappearances, such as the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance and the prohibition to be held in secret detention. The article refers to the so-called “temporal element” of the enforced disappearance and highlights the position set by the Committee in this regard.