Enforced disappearance: at the crossroads of state and individual criminal responsibility in international law

Abstract

The practice of ‘making people disappear' constitutes a global phenomenon, a gross violation of human rights, and a serious international crime. Due to the fact that it can only be committed with the involvement of state officials, enforced disappearance can be classified as a ‘crime of state'. The thesis analyses the relevant international legal framework, and attempts to shed light on the relationship between the international responsibility of states and the international criminal responsibility of individuals for enforced disappearance, with an outlook to the broader category of ‘crimes of state'. The thesis examines this relationship at the level of primary norms, the subjective element, and attribution. In this context, the author argues in favour of the existence of a sui generis subjective element of state responsibility, and of the need for an ‘inversion of balance' between state and individual criminal responsibility for 'crimes of state', giving primacy to the former.