The crime of enforced disappearance was invented by Adolf Hitler in his Nacht und Nebel Erlass (Night and Fog Decree) issued on 7 December 1941.2
Since that date, hundreds of thousands of persons have been the victim of this crime. Sadly, the commission of this crime saw a resurgence in Latin America in the 1950s and then it spread around the world. Enforced disappearance remains one of the worst human rights violations. As stated in Article 1 of the Declaration on the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance:
“Any act of enforced disappearance places the person subjected thereto outside the protection of the law and inflicts sever suffering on them and their families. It constitutes a violation of the rules of international law guaranteeing, inter alia, the right to recognition as a person before the law, the right to liberty and security of the person and the right not to be subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. It also violates or constitutes a grave threat to the right to life.”