This work aims to make a literature review that refers to the conceptual characteristics of the grief experienced by relatives of disappeared persons in a context of enforced disappearance as an international violation of human rights. To accomplish this, the research is based on an exploration of reference books on this subject, scientific articles from indexed journals of the last 10 years and jurisprudence of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights about enforced disappearance. It begins with the definition of enforced disappearance as an international Human Rights violation; then, a categorization of the victims is given; to continue with the development of the concept of general grief to compare it with the grief experienced by the next of kin, and then, its applicability to the cases of the Interamerican Court. It was found that the findings given by the theory are applied to the dictates of this court, with a rights protection discourse and integral reparation. Future researches are recommended on therapeutic proposals.
