Place Of Norms On Enforced Disappearance In The Criminal Law System Of Ukraine

Abstract

The norms of the current Criminal Code of Ukraine are analyzed in the part related to criminal liability for enforced disappearance, as well as draft criminal law norms regarding the implementation of international acts on enforced disappearance. The dual nature of enforced disappearance (as isolated criminal offenses and as a widespread or systematic practice) is explored. Objects affected by enforced disappearance in both of these manifestations have been analyzed.
The position is defended and argued, according to which a necessary constructive feature in the composition of enforced disappearance is «leaving a person without the protection of the law.» The lack of this feature in the text of the current Article 146-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, as well as in the text of Art. 442-1, by which the code can be supplemented (provided the signing of the Law of Ukraine «On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of Ukraine Regarding the Implementation of International Criminal and Humanitarian Law»), as well as in the text of the relevant articles of the Draft Criminal Code (developed by the Working Group on development of criminal law of the Commission on Legal Reform). A conclusion is drawn on the need to include this constructive feature in the text of the national criminal law on enforced disappearance and on the need to place it in Chapter XVIII of the Special Part of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.