The Vanishing Act: Punishing and Deterring Perpetrators through the Concurrent Application of Diverse Legal Regimes to Enforced Disappearances

This paper assesses the possibility of punishing and deterring perpetrators of enforced disappearances by drawing on diverse legal regimes, such as international humanitarian law (IHL), international human rights law (IHRL) and international criminal law (ICL). To this effect, a preliminary inquiry is made concerning whether enforced disappearances have been used as a method of warfare and whether these crimes can be regarded as continuing offences. The author also analyses enforced disappearances committed by private persons and non-state actors. He discusses enforced disappearances as a crime against humanity and looks at how universal jurisdiction can be invoked to try cases of enforced disappearances.