While it is important that action is taken against the perpetrators, it is equally important to work on the prevention of enforced disappearances, because ultimately the prevention of the occurrence of enforced disappearances is the best remedy. Again: it is primarily the responsibility of the States to prevent disappearances  but, due to all sorts of reasons, not all states are very committed in doing so.

The State can implement various measures. They can be legislative (penal, civil, administrative) but can also enthrall more practical measures. Some examples of measures are:

To prevent enforced disappearances from happening the convention requires States to install stringent safeguards.

The Convention prohibits secret detention and gives specific rules and regulations with regard to deprivation of liberty including the maintenance of up-to-date official registers of persons deprived of liberty. It also requires States to impose sanctions on conduct that undermines the safeguards.

In particular associations of relatives of the victims, together with human rights organizations and others have played a crucial role in preventing the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. Since 1981, when the Latin American federation of associations of relatives was created, a continuous lobby took place to suppress and prevent the phenomenon of enforced disappearances. Without their efforts the 1992 UN Declaration on the Protection of All persons from Enforced Disappearance, the 1994 Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons as well as the 2007 International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance would not have been adopted.