National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons (Spanish: Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas, CONADEP) was an Argentine organization created by President Raúl Alfonsín on 15 December 1983, shortly after his inauguration, to investigate the fate of the desaparecidos (victims of forced disappearance) and other human rights violations (see: Dirty War) performed during the military dictatorship known as the National Reorganization Process between 1976 and 1983.
But, the implementation of forced disappearances began to be prevalent following the 1976 Argentine coup d'état, displaying a determination to eliminate opposition with a more hidden method.
[3] These hidden methods kept the Argentine government from being susceptible to international scrutiny and allowed the murder and torture of anyone without someone having to be held accountable to explain for the actions.
These reports promoted visits from both Amnesty International and IACHR, but the dictatorship succeeded in denying the charges until the Falklands War in June 1982 and Argentina's defeat.
In September 1983, the regime then passed the "National Pacification Act" that granted impunity to the state by saying that all the action that was a result of the "antisubversive war" was then "extinguished".
Human rights groups disagreed with this and though that the military courts would refuse to impose any legal sanctions on the prosecuted and believed that the only way to see justice was to have a "bicameral commission".
[3] Ernesto Sábato, Eduardo Rabossi, Gregorio Klimovsky, Hilario Fernández Long, Marshall Meyer, Ricardo Colombres, Monsignor Jaime de Nevares, Magdalena Ruiz Guiñazú, René Favaloro, and Carlos Gattinoni were all invited to join the Commission.
Movimiento Ecuménico por los Derechos Humanos [es] (Ecumenical Movement for Human Rights, or MEDH) provided CONADEP with personnel.
In the summer of 1984, relatives of the disappeared and survivors collected at the Centro Cultural San Martín in Buenos Aires at the location of the CONADEP headquarters in order to give their testimonies.
During the collection of the testimonies, which would soon be concentrated and organized into the Nunca Más report, CONADEP decided the most effective way to prosecute the ones thought to be responsible, would be to identify the people they though were guilty and have them explain the events in court.
The reports explains how CONADEP was successful in identifying 300 secret detention centers throughout Argentina used during the "Dirty War" that were administered by the military and documenting 8,961 deaths and disappearances from 1976-1977.
Some people who approve of the work of CONADEP say that it started the "justice cascade" trend which is the implementation of new norms and practices that provide more accountability for human rights violations.