New Technologies and Enforced Disappearances: The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances – Exploring a New World between Opportunities and Challenges

The concept of enforced disappearance has undergone a multifaceted normative and jurisprudential evolution which occurs, among other areas, in the legal determination of which rights are violated in each case of enforced disappearance. In addition to the rights that were initially protected, other rights have arisen. The International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance has created new rights including the right not to be forcibly disappeared and, the right of the victims of (enforced) disappearance to be searched for. However, neither the Convention as the most modern instrument in this evolving process or the Committee on Enforced Disappearances do not explicitly recognize the violation of economic, social, and cultural rights in cases of disappearances. As the Convention requires the Committee to “cooperate” and “consult” with all the relevant organs, it is crucial to look at the contributions of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the field.