Some of the relatives’ stories start with the banging of a door at night, followed by a sudden abduction; others begin with a seemingly innocent citation to appear at a police station for a “routine procedure”. In any case, the stories always unfold in a desolate manner: as a loved one vanishes without official explanation, the family starts a desperate pilgrimage to hospitals, barracks, morgues and clandestine burial sites, only to be mocked and stigmatized.
The crime of enforced disappearance—the abduction of a person followed by the indefinite denial of their detention and of information on their whereabouts—is one of the cruelest and most effective forms of repression. The relatives and social circles of the disappeared suffer a deep sense of anxiety and fear that has been recognized as a form of torture; communities and organizations weaken under a pall of terror.
The Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Detentions, a UN body established in 1980 to assist the families of the disappeared seeking cooperation from the governments concerned, has examined over 54,000 cases representing violations that took place in 104 countries. This is but a fraction of known cases from around the world. The contexts where disappearances have taken place vary widely: a military dictatorship, like the Argentine junta in the 1980s; a civil war like Algeria’s in the 1990s; the so-called “war on terror” in more recent times.
Disappearances violate several fundamental rights, including the right to life, to legal recognition as a person, to due process guarantees, and to be protected from torture. In addition, since perpetrators hide information, the relatives’ and society’s right to know the truth is also violated.
Several countries where ICTJ has worked over the years have developed policies to address the needs of families of those who are missing: truth commission in Peru, Morocco, and Brazil established authoritative lists of victims, identified sites of illegal detention and clandestine gravesites; and local forensic experts have developed impressive technical knowledge, conducting thousands of exhumations, identifying remains and returning remains to families in countries like South Africa, Bosnia, and Guatemala. But what needs to be done is still much more than the progress in the terrain: governments often put legislation to seek the disappeared on the back burner or fail to provide sufficient resources to their experts, inured to the demands of aging, desperate relatives.
On the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, ICTJ joins efforts worldwide to uphold the rights and reflect the dignity of the victims and their relatives.
The struggle of the relatives of the disappeared has been a source of inspiration to all of us who work in transitional justice processes and in defense of human rights more generally. They set an example for us with their courage and creativity in insisting on the right to know what happened to their loved ones, in demanding justice and in keeping the presence of the disappeared alive in the broader society. On this International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearance, ICTJ is highlighting some of the many forms that relatives of the disappeared have used to promote and honor the memory of the disappeared around the world. These memorials and commemorative practices help to educate the public about this horrible crime, about the lives that were lost and fates that were hidden, and to remind the citizens of a continued responsibility to unveil the truth and seek justice for the disappeared.
In some places where democracy has strengthened since authoritarian regimes, like Chile and Argentina, memorials have gained official status and receive thousands of visitors; in other countries, like Lebanon or Nepal, the relatives perform demonstrations and pilgrimages to mark the disappearances; while artists and civil society supporters in Peru develop other forms of commemoration, like the ceremonial knitting of clothing objects with the names of the disappeared. Everywhere, these commemorative practices and sites are imbued by the symbolic power of one of the most basic human cultural needs: grieving for the dead, and honoring them in accordance to each community’s spiritual beliefs.
Memorials allow for mourning, but they also facilitate dialogue and learning. They can mobilize educators, artists, religious leaders, and other constituencies whose participation is critical to affect societal transformation. The importance of memorializing is critical not only to the relatives of the disappeared but to new generations focused on a future free of abuse. Commemorating the disappeared—honoring their dignity and their relatives’ struggle—is an integral element of transitional justice that governments and society need to uphold.
