International Law on Missing Persons: Normative Foundations and Contemporary Significance
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.63410/20261/008Keywords:
missing persons, armed conflict, right to know, enforced disapearance, new area of lawAbstract
The article examines the emergence of a new field of international law: missing persons law, comprising a body of binding and non-binding norms, and a sophisticated governance architecture involving diverse actors and institutions. It argues that, while the problem of missing persons remains acutely relevant in today’s turbulent world, contemporary developments in international law
support identifying missing persons law as a distinct field at the global level. The article further makes the case for consolidating an international law of missing persons as a separate branch of international law, and contends that future norm development should be informed by critical approaches, including Third World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL), and feminist legal theory.
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