RESOLUTION Nº 11/83

CASE OF DISAPPEARED PERSONS IN CHILE

July 1, 1983

WHEREAS:

1.          Between 1974 and 1978, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights received a large number of denunciations alleging that many persons have been the subjects of apprehension in their residences, places of work, or in public places, by armed personnel, at times in uniform, who usually say that they belong to some branch of public authority, through operations that are significant and coordinated in both deployment and manner of execution. Following the events described, the persons apprehended have disappeared without any word of their whereabouts.

2.          The Commission has opened individual and class action cases in connection with the charges made, transmitted to the Government of Chile the pertinent documents and requested it to furnish prompt information, in accordance with regulatory provisions.

3.          The Commission believes that the cases presented to the Government of Chile fit the description given in the preceding paragraphs.

4.          In each of the cases included in this resolution, the Government of Chile has furnished insufficient or unsatisfactory information which does not clarify the whereabouts of the disappeared persons.

5.          The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, through its regular and ongoing negotiations with the Government of Chile, took special interest in exhausting all possibilities to determine the exact truth of the present status of the disappeared persons.

6.          The Commission has reached the painful conclusion that the great majority of the disappeared persons have died of causes that it is unable to specify but which, in any event, entail a great responsibility for those who captured or detained them.

THE INTER-AMERICAN COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, RESOLVES:

1.          To declare that it is the responsibility of the Chilean Government to take all necessary measures to clarify and solve the problem of the disappeared persons.

2.          To recommend to the Government of Chile:

a)          That it inform the family members and explain to them the status of the disappeared persons, who, it shall be understood, are those who were apprehended in operations which, because of the conditions in which they were carried out and their descriptions, make it possible to presume that public law enforcement agencies participated in them;

b)          That it keeps the Commission informed of all measures it takes to put into practice the recommendations contained in this resolution.

3.          To communicate this resolution to the Government of Chile and to the petitioners.

4.          To suspend consideration of the individual cases of disappeared persons and, notwithstanding the same, the Commission reserves the right to reopen processing of cases in which new important evidence appears and, if necessary, undertake studies of the same.

5.          To include this resolution in its Annual Report to the General Assembly of the Organization of American States, pursuant to the terms of Article 50 (4) of the Regulations of the Commission, and, notwithstanding the same, the Commission reserves the right to reconsider this resolution in its next session in the light of any measures that the Government of Chile may take.