Key Benefits:
LAW 707 OF 2001
(November 28)
Official Journal No 44.632 of 1 December 2001
By means of which the " Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance
is approvedof Persons, " made in Belém do Pará, the nine (9) of June of a thousand nine hundred and ninety
and four (1994).
THE CONGRESS OF COLOMBIA
Having regard to the text of the "Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons", made in Belém do Pará, on the nine (9) of June of one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four (1994), which the letter says:
(To be transcribed: photocopy of the full text of the international instrument mentioned).
INTER-AMERICAN CONVENTION ON FORCED DISAPPEARANCE OF PERSONS
Member States of the Organization of American States,
Preoccupied by the fact that people are forced to disappear;
Reaffirming that the genuine sense of American solidarity and good neighbourliness cannot be another than that of consolidating in this Hemisphere, within the framework of democratic institutions, a regime of freedom individual and social justice, founded on respect for the essential rights of man;
Considering that the enforced disappearance of persons constitutes an affront to the consciousness of the Hemisphere and a serious offense of a hateful nature to the intrinsic dignity of the human person, in contradiction with the principles and purposes enshrined in the Charter of the Organization of American States;
Considering that the enforced disappearance of persons violates multiple essential human rights of the unabrogable human person, as enshrined in the American Convention on Human Rights, in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
Remembering that the international protection of human rights is of a conventional or complementary nature to which the internal law offers and the attributes of the human person are based;
reaffirming that the systematic practice of forced disappearance of persons constitutes a crime against humanity;
Hoping that this Convention will contribute to preventing, sanctioning and suppressing the enforced disappearance of people in the Hemisphere and constitutes a decisive contribution to the protection of human rights and the state of right,
Solve adopt the following Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons:
States Parties to this Convention undertake to:
(a) Do not practice, not permit, or tolerate the enforced disappearance of persons, or even in a state of emergency, exception or suspension of individual guarantees;
b) Punish in the field of their jurisdiction the perpetrators, accomplices and concealers of the crime of enforced disappearance of persons, as well as the attempt to commission it;
c) Cooperate with each other to help prevent, punish and eradicate the enforced disappearance of people; and
(d) Take measures of a legislative, administrative, judicial or other nature necessary to comply with the commitments made in this Convention.
For the purposes of this Convention, the deprivation of liberty shall be deemed to be enforced by one or more persons, regardless of their form, committed by agents of the State or by persons or groups of persons acting with the authorization, support or acquiescence of the State, followed by a lack of information or refusal to recognize such deprivation of liberty or to report on the whereabouts of the person, thereby preventing the exercise of legal and legal remedies the relevant procedural safeguards.
States Parties undertake to adopt, in accordance with their constitutional procedures, any legislative measures necessary to criminalize the enforced disappearance of persons, and to impose an appropriate penalty on them. In the light of its extreme gravity. Such a crime shall be considered as continuous or permanent as long as the victim's fate or whereabouts are not established.
States Parties may establish extenuating circumstances for those who have participated in acts that constitute a forced disappearance when they contribute to the occurrence of the victim's life or provide information to enable them to clarify the enforced disappearance of a person.
The constitutive facts of the enforced disappearance of people will be considered crimes in any State Party. Accordingly, each State Party shall take the measures to establish its jurisdiction over the cause in the following cases:
(a) When the enforced disappearance of persons or any of their constituent acts have been committed in the field of their jurisdiction;
b) When the imputed is national of that State;
c) When the victim is a national of that State and is considered appropriate.
Any State Party shall also take the necessary measures to establish its jurisdiction over the crime described in this Convention when the alleged offender is within its territory and does not proceed to extradite him.
This Convention does not empower a State Party to undertake in the territory of another State Party the exercise of the jurisdiction or the performance of the functions reserved exclusively to the authorities of the other Party for its legislation internal.
Forced disappearance of people will not be considered a political crime for extradition purposes.
Forced disappearance shall be deemed to be included among the offences that result in extradition in any extradition treaty concluded between States Parties.
States Parties undertake to include the crime of enforced disappearance as an extradition subject in any extradition treaty that they celebrate with each other in the future.
Any State Party that subordinates extradition to the existence of a treaty and receives from another State Party with which it does not have an extradition request may consider this Convention as the necessary legal basis for the extradition concerning the offence of enforced disappearance.
States Parties that do not subordinate extradition to the existence of a treaty shall recognize that crime as being capable of extradition, subject to the conditions required by the right of the requested State.
Extradition shall be subject to the provisions laid down in the constitution and other laws of the State addressed.
When a State Party does not grant extradition, it shall submit the case to its competent authorities as if the offence has been committed in the field of its jurisdiction, for the purposes of investigation and, where appropriate, criminal proceedings, conformity with its national legislation. The decision taken by those authorities shall be communicated to the State which requested the extradition.
The criminal action arising from the enforced disappearance of persons and the penalty that is imposed on the person responsible for the crime will not be subject to prescription.
However, when there was a rule of a fundamental nature that would prevent the application of the provisions of the previous paragraph, the period of limitation must be equal to that of the most serious crime in the internal legislation of the respective State. Part.
The eximent of obedience due to orders or higher instructions that possess, authorize or encourage forced disappearance shall not be permitted. Every person who receives such orders has the right and duty to obey them.
States Parties shall also ensure that, in the training of personnel or public servants in charge of law enforcement, the necessary education on the crime of enforced disappearance of persons is provided.
The alleged perpetrators of the acts constituting the offence of enforced disappearance of persons may only be tried by the competent common law courts in each State, excluding any special jurisdiction, in military.
The facts of the enforced disappearance cannot be considered as being committed in the exercise of military functions.
No privileges, immunities, or special waivers shall be permitted in such proceedings, without prejudice to the provisions contained in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.
In no case may exceptional circumstances, such as a state of war or threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, be invoked as a justification for the enforced disappearance of persons. In such cases, the right to speedy, effective judicial procedures or remedies shall be retained as a means of determining the whereabouts of persons deprived of liberty or their state of health or to individualize the authority which ordered the Deprivation of liberty or made it effective.
In the processing of such procedures or resources and in accordance with the respective domestic law, the competent judicial authorities shall have free and immediate access to any detention center and to each of its offices, as well as to any place where there is reason to believe that the missing person may be found, even places subject to military jurisdiction.
Every private person of liberty must be kept in places of detention officially recognized and presented without delay, in accordance with the respective domestic law, to the competent judicial authority.
States Parties shall establish and maintain updated official records on their detainees and, in accordance with their domestic law, make them available to family members, judges, lawyers, any person with legitimate interest and others. authorities.
States Parties shall cooperate in the search, identification, location and restitution of minors who have been transferred to or held in another State as a result of the forced disappearance of their parents, guardians or guarders.
For the purposes of this Convention, the processing of petitions or communications filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in which the enforced disappearance of persons is alleged shall be subject to the procedures established in the American Convention on Human Rights, and in the Statutes and Regulations of the Commission and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, including the rules on precautionary measures.
Without prejudice to the provisions of the previous article, when the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights receives a petition or communication on an alleged enforced disappearance, it will be directed, through its Executive Secretariat, in an urgent manner. and confidential, to the corresponding government requesting it to provide as soon as possible the information on the whereabouts of the person allegedly missing and other information that it considers relevant, without this request prejudging the admissibility of the request.
Nothing stipulated in this Convention shall be construed as restrictive of other bilateral or multilateral treaties or other agreements entered into between the Parties.
This Convention will not apply to international armed conflicts governed by the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and its Protocols concerning the protection of the wounded, sick and shipwrecked of the armed forces, and prisoners and civilians in time of war.
This Convention is open to the signature of the Member States of the Organization of American States.
This Convention is subject to ratification. The instruments of ratification shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States.
This Convention shall be open to the accession of any other State. The instruments of accession shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States.
States may make reservations to this Convention at the time of approving, signing, ratifying or acceding to this Convention, provided that they are not incompatible with the object and purpose of the Convention and deal with one or more provisions. specific.
This Convention shall enter into force for the ratifying States on the 30th day from the date on which the second instrument of ratification has been deposited.
For each State ratifying or acceding to the Convention after the deposit of the second instrument of ratification, the Convention shall enter into force on the 30th day from the date on which the Convention has deposited its instrument of ratification or accession.
This Convention shall govern indefinitely, but any State Party may denounce it. The instrument of denunciation shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States. After one year from the date of the date of deposit of the instrument of denunciation, the Convention shall cease for the purposes of the reporting State and shall remain in force for the other States Parties.
The original instrument of this Convention, whose texts in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, which shall send authentic copies of its text, for registration and publication, to the Secretariat of the United Nations, in accordance with Article 102 of the Charter of the United Nations. The General Secretariat of the Organization of American States shall notify the Member States of that Organization and the States that have acceded to the Convention, the signatures, the deposit of instruments of ratification, accession and denunciation, as well as any reservations.
In faith of which the undersigned plenipotentiaries, duly authorized by their respective governments, sign this Convention, which shall be called the "Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons".
Made in the city of Belém do Pará, Brazil, on June 9, a thousand nine hundred and ninety-four.
EXECUTIVE BRANCH OF PUBLIC POWER
PRESIDENCY OF THE REPUBLIC
Bogotá, D. C., October 3, 2000
Approved, subject to the consideration of the honorable National Congress for constitutional effects.
(Fdo.) ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
The Foreign Minister,
(Fdo.) Guillermo Fernandez De Soto.
DECRETA:
ARTICLE 1o. Approve the "Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons", made in Belém do Pará, on the nine (9) of June of one thousand nine hundred and ninety-four (1994).
ARTICLE 2o. In accordance with the provisions of Article 1o. of Law 7a. In 1944, the "Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons", made in Belém do Pará, on the nine (9) of June of a thousand nine hundred and ninety-four (1994), which is approved by the first article of this law, will force the country from the the date of the completion of the international link with respect to the same.
ARTICLE 3o. This law governs from the date of its publication.
The President of the honorable Senate of the Republic,
CARLOS GARCIA ORJUELA.
The Secretary General of the honorable Senate of the Republic,
MANUEL ENRIQUEZ ROSERO.
The President of the honorable House of Representatives,
GUILLERMO GAVIRIA ZAPATA.
The Secretary General of the honorable House of Representatives,
ANGELINO LIZANO RIVERA.
COLOMBIA-NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
COMMUNICATE AND COMPLY.
Execute, upon revision of the Constitutional Court, in accordance with article 241-10 of the Political Constitution.
Dada en Bogotá, D. C., at November 28, 2001.
ANDRES PASTRANA ARANGO
The Foreign Minister,
GUILLERMO FERNANDEZ DE SOTO.
The Minister of Justice and Law,
ROMULO GONZALEZ TRUJILLO.
