Enforced disappearance, the prohibition of which is a jus cogens norm, represents a grave threat to life. The key elements in an enforced disappearance are the detention or abduction of an individual, followed by a refusal to acknowledge his or her whereabouts and confirm his or her well-being. In any enforced disappearance in which it was involved, a State is likely to be found to have violated the duty to protect life as well as other rights, such as the prohibition of torture or other inhumane treatment or punishment, the rights to liberty and security of person, and the right to recognition as a person before the law.

This chapter discusses the legal competence of the Special Court for Sierra Leone. First, the chapter discusses the personal jurisdiction of the Court and the decision to prosecute the crimes that had already been established as legal norms under international law and domestic Sierra Leonean law. The chapter thereafter examines the origin of each of the prosecutable crimes from prior international tribunals, namely crimes against humanity, war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law, and the debates and difficulties that stemmed from using Sierra Leone’s law as the basis for offenses. Second, it analyzes the temporal jurisdiction of the court, while the civil war lasted nearly a decade the temporal jurisdiction of the Special Court only covered a few years in the last part of a ten-year conflict, leaving a large part of atrocities without any prosecutions. Finally, the chapter addresses the Special Court’s prosecutions of all parties to the Sierra Leone conflict, including the controversial government-funded militia, in an attempt to avoid criticism as another “victors justice” court.