On Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions 40th anniversary: From the construction of the right to know to the reported disappeared persons search unit on the context and due to the Colombian conflict

Abstract

This article draws on the fortieth anniversary of the adoption of Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions in order promote an analysis on the birth and evolution of the duty to search for missing persons; whose key moment can be placed in Section III (article 32 et seq.) of the aforementioned Protocol. Under the umbrella title in International Humanitarian Law of “right to know”, and even in its later and most current extension and expansion in International Human Rights Law, most commonly under the “right to the truth” label, the unique construction of Protocol I will be a constant reference reaching the closest experiences, as it is the Colombian one. Thus, the analysis that will be carried out in the first parts of this article will also and finally allow to evaluate the measures adopted in the most recent Colombian Peace Agreement with regards to the right to know and the duty to search for disappeared persons.