Enforced disappearances in the context of migration: A brief review of General Comment No.1 of the Committee against Forced Disappearances

Resumen

The reasons that lead a person to initiate a migratory movement are manifold. Therefore, the conditions and the way in which this movement is carried out are also diverse and unequal. Currently, there is not a single country in the world with open borders. This means that each country sets the requirements that a person must meet to enter its territory. This confirms that the “right to migrate” is not fully recognized in any legal system1. Because not everyone can meet these requirements or are denied visas, in many cases people are forced to use forms, routes, and modes of transportation that risk their integrity or lives to make a cross-border migration move. But that’s not all: thousands of migrants disappear on the way to their destination country or in the destination country itself. In many cases, we do not even know whether they have died or whether something 1 Human rights treaties generally recognize the right to enter and leave one’s own country, but not the right to enter another country. Most of what is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is that “everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.” See: (Castilla Juárez K. , 2024) has happened to them. We simply do not know anything more about these people. Faced with this situation, which has been analyzed, studied, and attempted to be documented for several years2, the United Nations Committee against Forced Disappearances took a step forward by adopting, on September 18, 2023, its first General Comment dealing specifically with “enforced disappearance in the migratory context3”. This occurred primarily because the Committee is deeply concerned about the increasing trends of enforced disappearances in the context of migration, and because it notes with great concern that cases of enforced disappearances are frequently reported along various migration routes.