28 110. According to the Court’s case law, the practice of disappearances has frequently involved the secret execution of those detained, without trial, followed by concealment of the corpse in order to eliminate any material evidence of the crime and to ensure absolute impunity, which entails a brutal 135 violation of the right to life, established in Article 4 of the Convention. The jurisprudence of the InterAmerican system has also determined that when a person has disappeared in violent circumstances and 136 remained disappeared for a long time it is reasonable to presume that he has been killed. 111. In its analysis of the facts, the Commission has taken into account that the victim was a 137 civilian. Under Article 29(b) of the American Convention and as the Inter-American Court found in the Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre” v. Colombia: with regard to establishment of the international responsibility of the State in the instant case, the Court cannot set aside the existence of general and special duties of the State to protect the civilian population, derived from International Humanitarian Law, specifically Article 3 common of the August 12, 1949 Geneva Agreements and the provisions of the additional Protocol to the Geneva Agreements regarding protection of the victims of non-international armed conflicts (Protocol II). Due respect for the individuals protected entails passive obligations (not to kill, not to violate physical safety, etc.), while the protection due entails positive obligations to impede violations against said persons by third parties. Carrying out said obligations is significant in the instant case, insofar as the massacre was committed in a situation in which civilians were unprotected in a non138 international domestic armed conflict. 112. With regard to the facts in the instant case and bearing in mind the armed conflict that framed them, the Commission notes that common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions expressly forbids 139 under any circumstances violence against “[p]ersons taking no active part in the hostilities.” For its part, 140 Article 13 of Protocol II recognizes the principle of civilian immunity as follows: 1. The civilian population and individual civilians shall enjoy general protection against the dangers arising from military operations. To give effect to this protection, the following rules shall be observed in all circumstances. 2. The civilian population as such, as well as individual civilians, shall not be the object of attack. Acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population are prohibited. 3. Civilians shall enjoy the protection afforded by this Part, unless and for such time as they take a direct part in hostilities. 113. As regards the right to recognition of juridical personality, the Commission notes that it is an essential and necessary prerequisite in order to hold and exercise all rights, since without it, a person 141 does not enjoy the protection and guarantees that the law offers, simply because they are invisible to it. 135 I/A Court H.R., Case of the 19 Merchants, Judgment of July 5, 2004, Series C No. 109. para. 154; Bámaca Velásquez Case, Judgment of November 25, 2000, Series C No. 70. para. 130. 136 I/A Court H.R., Velásquez Rodríguez Case, Judgment of July 29, 1988, Series C No. 4, para. 188. 137 Article 29(b) of the American Convention on Human Rights – Restrictions Regarding Interpretation: “No provision of this Convention shall be interpreted as: […] b. restricting the enjoyment or exercise of any right or freedom recognized by virtue of the laws of any State Party or by virtue of another convention to which one of the said States is a party […]” 138 I/A Court H.R., Case of the “Mapiripán Massacre” v. Colombia, Merits, Reparations and Costs, Judgment of September 15, 2005, Series C No. 134, para. 114. 139 Peru ratified the Geneva Conventions http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebSign?ReadForm&id=375&ps=P. 140 Peru ratified Protocol II to the Geneva http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/WebSign?ReadForm&id=375&ps=P. on February Conventions on 15, July 1956. 14, 1989. Available Available at at 141 IACHR, Application to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the case of Gregoria Herminia Contreras and others v. the Republic of El Salvador, Cases 12.494, 12.517, and 12.518, June 28, 2010, para. 174, available at www.cidh.oas.org/demandas/demandasESP2010.htm.