De rol van mensenrechtenmechanismen van de Verenigde Naties bij de toepassing van het recht op de waarheid in verband met gedwongen verdwijningen en het geval Mexico

This doctoral research examines how the United Nations (UN) human rights mechanisms specialized in dealing with enforced disappearances, namely the Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED) and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), interpret and implement the right to the truth in relation to enforced disappearance, with a focus on the case of Mexico. It examines the way in which the recognition of the right to the truth in relation to enforced disappearance came about under international human rights law and in the context of the work of the United Nations, as well as the content of the right, including the obligations of the State and the requirements for its implementation. It further analyzes the manner and degree to which Mexico has implemented this right, and the main challenges to its implementation. The study also looks at how the studied UN mechanisms work to assist, and could further assist, in implementing this right through their mandates, functions and procedures, and whether any new or different mechanisms and other options are needed to attain the right in Mexico. The study relies on a combination of theoretical and empirical research, gathering and analyzing the corpus of work of the WGEID and CED on the right to the truth in relation to enforced disappearance, and incorporating the findings of interviews conducted with independent experts that make up these human rights mechanisms. The study concludes, among the main, that the right to the truth is an overarching and central right of victims of enforced disappearance, seeking to address the core aspects of the crime: namely to locate the disappeared person and ascertain what happened to them. Furthermore, there remain serious challenges to the attainment of the right in the case of Mexico, several of which have historical roots and would require a radical change in government policy to be eradicated. The study also concludes that the WGEID and the CED play an essential role in supporting States to implement the right and that, in the case of Mexico, likely additional measures, both legal and political, could have a positive impact in supporting and pressuring the State to guarantee this vital victims' right.