Rights of Families of the Missing
Who is a Family Member?
A family member is someone who is linked to the missing person by blood or by social family structures. This includes biological children, adopted children and stepchildren; life partner/spouse; parents (including mother-in-law, father-in-law and adoptive parents); and brothers and sisters born of the same parents or different parents or adopted. This inclusive definition may not apply to you in some countries.
Family Rights
You have the right to know the truth regarding the progress and results of any investigations conducted by the authorities to establish the fate and whereabouts of your disappeared family member and the circumstances in which they went missing. This right is enshrined in Article 24 of the UN International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), among other international documents.
Families have the right to seek and receive information about investigations that have been or are being conducted, and to access all relevant archives and locations where the missing person might be found. If the missing person is deceased, families have the right to receive a report that explains the circumstances of the disappearance, including the cause and manner of death.
If the authorities withhold information about missing persons from their family, the family has the right to object. Withholding such information may amount to cruel and inhumane treatment, which is a violation of the prohibition of torture, under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The prohibition of torture is an absolute norm of international law.
Everyone’s right to life, liberty and security is protected by law. This means that no one may be arbitrarily arrested or detained. It also includes not being subjected to enforced disappearance or detention in a secret location. The right to life, liberty and security also entails your right as the family member of a missing person to obtain an effective investigation into the fate and whereabouts of your missing relative, and the circumstances of the disappearance. These rights are protected under Articles 6 and 9 of the ICCPR.
Effective investigations must be official, independent, impartial, finalized in a timely manner, and capable of establishing the facts and circumstances in each case. Investigations should also be able to contribute to bringing those responsible to account.
You can initiate an official investigation by reporting to the authorities that your relative is missing. However, the authorities are obliged to begin an impartial investigation as soon as they become aware of a possible disappearance, or a person going missing under potentially threatening circumstances, regardless of who committed the violations and abuses. The same applies to the authorities becoming aware of locations of hidden graves or secret detention places or other places where missing persons might be found.
Investigations must also be transparent, and you have the right to observe or participate in locating and identifying your missing relative. Certain specific rules at crime scenes or gravesites may apply, such as cordoning off the area and limiting access by family members to sites under investigation. This is normally done in order to protect you against harm, to secure the effectiveness and integrity of the investigation and to protect evidence that could establish the cause and manner of disappearance of your missing loved one.
Professionals involved in the investigation must minimize any harm that may result from the process, especially harm to the physical and mental well-being of family members. They must communicate appropriately the reason for limiting your access to sites under investigation.
You have the right to share information with whomever you may choose, the freedom to seek, receive and impart information, including across borders, and the right to access and communicate with international agencies. The right to seek and share information includes reporting about missing relatives and sharing necessary personal information to facilitate locating your missing relative.
You also have the right to associate freely at home and across borders and with international agencies for the purpose of supporting and forming organizations and associations of families of the missing, and documenting and sharing information.
You should be mindful that any exercise of the right to share and seek information carries with it duties and responsibilities to respect the rights of others, especially privacy rights. For instance, sharing personal information concerning another person, including information about a family member can breach privacy rights, unless the missing family member is considered to be at risk.
The rights and freedoms related to seeking, receiving, and imparting information are asserted in Article 19 of the ICCPR.
Missing persons and their family members have the right to family life and family reunification. This includes your right to maintain family relationships, communicate, visit, and correspond with your family members and not to be separated from your family members.
Failure by the authorities to allow communication with your family is a violation of this right and could amount to cruel or degrading treatment. Detained persons also have the right to be visited by and to correspond with relatives, subject to reasonable conditions and restrictions as specified by law or lawful regulations. Women are most often affected by the disappearance of family members and could suffer additional forms of intimidation and persecution arising from such disappearances.
Children also suffer from the disappearance of their parents, and their right to remain with their family is jeopardized by the disappearance of their family members. The loss of a parent through disappearance is also a serious violation of a child’s human rights. Children have the right to family relations as recognized by law without unlawful interference as well as the right not to be separated from their parents against their will, except on specific grounds deemed in the best interest of the child.
These rights pertaining to family life and family unification rights are asserted in the ICCPR as well as the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.
You have the right to equal and effective access to justice, adequate and prompt reparation for any harm suffered, and access to relevant information concerning violations and all available reparations mechanisms. As the family member of a missing person, you have the right to remedy and reparations to address mental, physical, or economic harm you have suffered as a result of the disappearance of your relative.
Remedies and reparations aim first of all to restore the situation before disappearance occurred. If restoring the original situation is not possible, remedies and reparations to family members of the missing can take other forms such as:
- Compensation
- Rehabilitation
- Satisfaction
- Guarantees of non-repetition
Asserting and defending the right to effective remedies and reparations is among the greatest challenges faced by families of the missing. Advocating collectively with other families of the missing through, for example, family associations and seeking the support of specialized organizations can strengthen your voice and your efforts to have your rights recognized by the authorities through legal and administrative measures as well as ensuring the effective implementation of your rights.
Your right to privacy consists of your right to determine freely and for yourself what personal information is communicated to others.
Accordingly, any personal information you provide in relation to your missing relative should be used only with your free and informed consent.
Informed consent means that you understand in detail:
- Who will receive the information that you provide
- For what purposes the information will be used
- How the information will be managed and protected
In addition, you as the family member of a missing person should always be able to:
- Control personal information related to yourself and your missing relative
- Have the ability to access, update, amend or withdraw such information as you deem necessary
- Ensure that personal data, including the nature of family relationships, will only be accessible to those who need to see it for the purposes for which the information was collected
- Ensure that your personal data will be deleted once it is no longer needed, for instance because your missing relative is found
Sensitive personal information such as medical conditions or DNA samples and profiles must be accompanied by your written consent and include the information above. Your right to privacy is a fundamental human right recognized in Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which underpins human dignity, autonomy, and liberty.
The principles of equality and non-discrimination apply to all rights and freedoms. All persons enjoy, without discrimination of any kind, fundamental rights, without adverse distinction and regardless of:
- Political or other opinion
- Association with a national minority
- Birth, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status
- Religion or belief
- Race, color, language, ethnicity, caste, national or social origin
- Physical or mental disability, health status
This applies, for example, to your right to seek information about the fate, whereabouts, and circumstances of disappearances of a missing relative, without any discrimination based on your political opinion or affiliation. It also applies to your right to associate and advocate for the rights of your missing loved one without any distinction related to the missing person or the family, such as race, religion, national or social origin or other status.
The principle of equality is frequently difficult to realize where large numbers of persons have gone missing, whether following armed conflicts or as a result of organized crime or disasters. International cooperation can help to reduce inequality in such scenarios through the provision of support and assistance to all persons and groups affected, but specifically those who are marginalized politically, economically, socially or for other reasons.
The principles of equality and non-discrimination are established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the ICCPR.
