Legal Document

Peru: Law No. 30470 on the search for missing persons during the 1980-2000 period of violence, 2016

Publication Year
2016
Region
The Americas
Thematic Area
Law & Policies / Mechanisms
Topic
Law – National
Access
Open access

On 22 June 2016, the President of Peru promulgated the law No. 30470 on the search for missing persions during the 1980-2000 period of violence. It aims to prioritize the humanitarian approach for the search of the missing persons who disappeared during the 1980-2000 non international armed conflict.
The law states that missing persons are those whose location is unknown due to the period of violence in Peru from 1980-2000 (article 2.b). Furthermore, it lays down that the search process must involve forensic investigation, psychosocial support, identification of dead bodies or human remains and material and logistic support to families of the missing persons (article2.d).
Article 3 recognizes the right of families of missing persons to know the circumstances of the disappearance and their whereabouts. In case of death, they have the right to know about the circumstances of said death and the location of their family members remains
The law creates the National Register for Missing Persons and Burial Sites aiming to individualize the information of missing persons and the facts behind their disappearance. The register also aims to support the search process (article 6).

The law also recognizes that forensic investigation aims to find and evaluate burial sites, register the biological profile of victims, recover the human remains and evaluate them scientifically with the purpose of identifying missing persons and returning the remains to their families, determining the cause of death and getting more information for future legal evidence (article 8).

Finally, the law requires the Ministry of Justice to create the National Plan for the Search for Missing persons and the Database of genetic profiles of missing persons and their families (Second and Third Supplementary Provisions)