A/HRC/45/13/Add.3 officio if required,108 clarifying all circumstances,109 impartial110 and aiming to identify the authors of the crime.111 An effective investigation is to be undertaken in view of ensuring proceedings that safeguard “the rights of access to justice, to the truth about the facts and to the reparation of the next of kin.”112 First deriving the duty to investigate from Article 1(1) of the American Convention on Human Rights (ACHR) (the general duty to respect and ensure), the Inter-American Court subsequently interpreted the content of this duty referring to Article 8 (the right to a fair trial) and Article 25 (the right to effective recourse) ACHR.113 6. The Inter-American Court stated in the The Pueblo Bello Massacre v. Colombia (paragraph 170): “[T]he Court will examine the due diligence in the conduct of these official actions to investigate the facts, as well as additional elements, in order to determine whether the procedures and proceedings were conducted respecting the right to a fair trial, within a reasonable time, and whether they constituted an effective recourse to ensure the rights of access to justice, to the truth about the facts and to the reparation of the next of kin.” 7. Furthermore, the Inter-American Court has held that “faced with the particular gravity of such offenses and the nature of the rights harmed, the prohibition of the forced disappearance of persons and the corresponding obligation to investigate and punish those responsible has attained the status of jus cogens.”114 Accordingly, all States, including third States, are required to take actions in the face of a breach of a peremptory norm of international law.115 The investigations have to be undertaken in a “serious manner,” and to be continued as long as the fate of the victim remains unknown. 116 This obligation in relation to effective investigations is only discharged when the disappeared persons will be released or their remains will be returned to families for burial in accordance with their customs and beliefs. Circumstances, in which structural patterns of violence are apparent, such as in contexts of widespread violence against women, warrant heightened due diligence in relation to investigative steps and require strengthened local mechanisms in order to carry out “specific search actions.” 117 The Inter-American Court indicated that human rights violations, including disappearances, are to be contextualized within the historical and political events that led to their occurrence.118 The identification of patterns of disappearances in relation to their historical, political, material, temporal and spatial context contribute to a society’s collective right to know the truth.119 Importantly, if prosecutions 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 22 IACHR, Velásquez Rodríguez v. Honduras, Merits, Judgment of July 29, 1988, Series C No. 4, para. 177. IACHR, Bámaca-Velásquez v. Guatemala, Reparations, Judgment of February 22, 2002, Series C No. 91, para. 75. Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Monsenor Oscar Arnulfo Romero and Galdámez v. El Salvador, Report No. 37/00, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.106 doc. 3 rev., 13 April 2000, para. 80. Inter-American Commission of Human Rights, Ignacio Ellacuría et al. v. El Salvador, Report No. 136/99, OEA/Ser.L/V/II.106 doc. 3 rev., 22 December 1999, para. 196. IACHR, The Pueblo Bello Massacre v. Colombia, Judgment of January 31, 2006, Series C No. 140 para. 170. See IACHR, Serrano-Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador, (Merits, Reparations and Costs) Judgment of March 1, 2005, Series C No. 118. See IACHR, Goiburú et al v. Paraguay, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment of September 22, 2006. Series C No. 153, para. 84; IACHR, Anzualdo Castro v. Peru (see footnote 16) para. 59; and IACHR, Radilla Pacheco v. Mexico. Preliminary Objections, Merits, Reparations, and Costs. Judgment of November 23, 2009. Series C No. 209, para. 139. See, Draft Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts by the International Law Commission (ILC) in August 2001, articles 40 and 41, available at https://legal.un.org/ilc/texts/instruments/english/draft_articles/9_6_2001.pdf. IACHR, Velásquez-Rodríguez v. Honduras (see footnote 126) paras. 177, 180 and 181; See also IACHR, Serrano-Cruz Sisters v. El Salvador (footnote 128) paras. 61, 65; IACHR, Villagrán Morales et al. v. Guatemala. Judgment of November 19, 1999, Series C No., para. 226. IACHR, González et al. (‘Cotton Field’) v. Mexico, Preliminary Objection, Merits, Reparations, and Costs. Judgment of November 16, 2009, Series C No. 205, para. 284. IACHR, Case of the Rochela Massacre v. Colombia (see footnote 86) paras. 76, 158 and 194. Verónica Hinestroza, Human Rights Institute of the International Bar Association, contribution to the expert consultation of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance at its 116th