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The search for the victims of enforced disappearance has received limited attention in both research and policy literature. What are the foundations and practical implementation of the search for victims? How do the families of victims cope and find their loved-ones in the absence of governmental action? By analysing the cases of Colombia and El Salvador this project will explore the complexity of this matter, with the aim to improve search processes and identify best and efficient practices in addressing this challenging issue.
The research questions seek to elucidate several aspects:
The research team has developed a methodology which combines an analysis of legal approaches in the relevant countries, data gathering on the subjective experiences of people affected in these cases, and rich descriptions of social practices with respect to the occurrences under examination.
The project “The Search for Victims of Enforced Disapperances: A Multidisciplinary Exploration of Current Practices” looking at the case studies of Colombia and El Salvador was implemented between January 2019 and March 2021. Whereas the activities in the first year focused on building the team, developing the analytical framework, mapping the actors involved in the search, understanding the legal and political contexts and undertaking the interviews, we focused on analyzing the data and writing publications in the second year. Although some meetings, the bilateral visits and outreach activities could not take place due to the COVID-19 pandemic which started in the second half of the project, the activities were mostly implemented as planned. The results of the research obtained tend to correspond to those that were expected. The findings evolve around three themes: Firstly the legal frameworks relevant for the search and the participation of family members therein; secondly mobilization of family members; and thirdly the interplay between experiences and legal notions around recognition and victimhood.
Political and social constructions of victimhood may facilitate or hinder the struggle for recognition of victims of ED. A lack of recognition, due to legal and institutional obstacles and the psycho-social challenges these create and/or exacerbate, generates additional in-justice for ED victims. Recognition constitutes a significant and multifaceted process essential for the provision of effective redress to ED victims and in addressing the inhumane or degrading treatment / torture that they continue to suffer.
Even though enforced disappearances (ED) continue to occur in different contexts worldwide, the search for the victims of ED has received limited attention from both research and policy. This multidisciplinary research project, which started in January 2019 and ended in March 2021, explored the foundations and practical implementation of the search for victims of ED, from a legal, a psychosocial and a political perspective in the two case study countries of Colombia and El Salvador.
Taking into account that several actors are generally involved in search efforts, in addition to the official search mechanisms, the project focused particularly on the role of the next of kin, specifically families and civil society organizations (CSOs). Families have specific needs in the process as they are affected by ED on numerous levels. They suffer psychologically from not knowing the fate or whereabouts of their loved ones; economically they are marginalized as it is often the breadwinner who has been disappeared; and socially they suffer from marginalization. As it is difficult for families to make themselves heard by government authorities and official search mechanisms, they often rely on the support of CSOs. Besides other links with the search process, the next of kin and CSOs contribute important information to the search or even the act of ED itself in the absence of governmental action. Given that successful search efforts are assumed to contribute to the restoration of trust and social ties, taking into account the needs of families in the search process is crucial. The results of the research project prove invaluable both in terms of increasing our understanding of how search processes take place and of how they could be improved to respond to victims’ needs.
Enforced disappearance is a human rights violation and crime widely used in repression and armed conflict contexts. The families of the forcibly disappeared are left in a state of ambiguous loss as they search for the disappeared to satisfy their right to truth and achieve healing and closure. However, there is limited knowledge of the obstacles that hinder the search in practice and of how families can best be supported when mobilizing in search processes. Taking a multi-disciplinary approach, using insights from procedural justice research and qualitative interviews undertaken with families and other actors involved in supporting search processes in Colombia and El Salvador, we enhance and expand the scholarship that acknowledges the importance of victim participation and victims as key justice stakeholders.
En este artículo realizamos un análisis sistemático de la normativa sobre búsqueda de personas víctimas de desaparición forzada en El Salvador y Colombia, al igual que sobre la participación de las familias víctimas en estos procesos. Al estudiar ambos cuerpos normativos —en consonancia con los instrumentos de derecho internacional aplicables y los Principios Rectores para la Búsqueda de Personas Desaparecidas de la ONU—, encontramos diferencias tanto en la consagración de los derechos a la búsqueda y a la participación como en su contenidos y alcances. En dos contextos distintos, uno de hiperinflación normativa (Colombia) y otro de ausencia de regulación explícita (El Salvador), la consecuencia parece seguir siendo la misma: las víctimas siguen esperando que se busque a sus seres queridos.
Whilst working as a research assistant for Dr Briony Jones in November 2019, I joined a project team exploring the search for victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia and El Salvador, specifically the legal frameworks and search mechanisms available for families and friends as they search for their disappeared loved ones. The team consisted of researchers from search organisations in Colombia and El Salvador, namely Dejustica and Pro Búsqueda, the practice-oriented research institute swisspeace and the universities of Lausanne and Warwick. The project was funded by the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS). Considering the global scope of the project, it was managed by a remarkably small team of ten members. Five of them were working in Dejustica and Pro Búsqueda and played a vital part in the project by conducting the interviews of eleven different relatives and civil society actors in Colombia and El Salvador. Assessing these interviews alongside the legal frameworks and the actors involved in the search formed the basis of the project’s analysis.
Lisa Ott
Coordinator
University of Basel
Laurent Goetschel
Co-Coordinator
University of Basel
Mina Rauschenbach
Principal Member
University of Lausanne
Briony Jones
Principal Member
University of Warwick
Ana Julia Excalante
Principal Member
Pro Busqueda
Heli Jeremias Hernandez
Principal Member
Pro Busqueda
Swiss Network for
International Studies