Velasquez Rodriguez v Honduras

Velasquez Rodriguez v Honduras was a 1988 decision, the first contentious judgment on the merits issued by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, holding Honduras responsible for the forced disappearance of Manfredo Velasquez Rodriguez by state security forces during the 1980s. The Court held that a state's duty under the American Convention on Human Rights to ensure the rights it protects requires it to prevent, investigate and punish violations even when committed by agents acting outside the scope of their ostensible authority, and that a pattern of state tolerated forced disappearances is itself a serious violation of the Convention. The judgment established the analytical framework the Inter-American human rights system has used ever since to assess enforced disappearances and state responsibility.