Empowering victims of enforced disappearance, guaranteeing their rights and providing multifaceted support.

This session included insightful contributions from family members as well as organizations and institutions who support them in their quest for truth, justice and reparation. Panelists addressed the provision of legal and psychosocial support, victim and family participation, and network-building. Various contexts were presented, including the overlooked enforced disappearance of women in war-torn Sudan. The interventions highlighted the key role played by family members who search for their loved ones, not only within their family, but within their community and society as a whole.

Common themes emerged: 

 • Gender dimension: The disproportionate impact of enforced disappearances on women and girls was examined both in their roles as family members left behind and as individuals subjected to disappearance themselves. In closed societies, the associated social stigma and the “burden of shame” contribute to the isolation of affected families, complicating efforts to provide legal and psychosocial support. 

• From victim to activist: the empowerment cycle Around the world, women searchers embody the movement against enforced disappearances through their courage and resilience, which reinforces the importance of collective action and serves as a source of inspiration to others. Providing legal, mental health and psychosocial support services to women while they seek truth and justice leads to their empowerment, allowing them to play a leadership role and, in turn, to support, train, and empower others.

 • Active family engagement: Panelists shared concrete examples of the successful active involvement of family members in legal proceedings, search and identification processes and legislation drafting, shedding light on their essential contribution to achieving truth and justice and to designing adequate legal frameworks. 

• Tailored, holistic approaches to victim support: The importance of tailored, trauma-informed, holistic approaches to providing support to victims, be it legal or psychosocial, was repeatedly emphasized. Enforced disappearances cause prolonged trauma, as families live in limbo, oscillating between hope and despair. Legal proceedings, search, memorialization and advocacy activities, while empowering, can also trigger trauma as victims and families relive their experiences. Holistic support ensures that victims and family members can actively participate in relevant processes while reducing retraumatization. Such support is also crucial to prevent intergenerational trauma. Best practices were shared, such as providing support that is tailored to women, men and children. Additionally, building community resilience ensures that there is a support network for victims to rely on, given the continuing nature of the trauma related to enforced disappearance.  

Recommendations for action 

• Adopting victim-centred - gender-sensitive, trauma-informed, holistic approaches - Gender-sensitive approaches should be adopted when addressing enforced disappearances, including integrating gender perspectives in relevant processes: search and identification, legal proceedings, drafting of legislation, provision of support. - The provision of mental health and psychosocial support services should be institutionalized and integrated into legal, social and justice mechanisms to minimize retraumatization. - Similarly, legal representation for victims should take into account the trauma resulting from enforced disappearance, ensuring that legal practices are structured to minimize retraumatization. This includes building trust and support networks for victims beyond the scope of legal proceedings. 

• Promoting the active engagement of family members: Efforts should focus on promoting the active involvement of family members at every step of the processes that affect them: search and identification, judicial, legislative and other relevant processes to ensure that those align with their rights. 

• Awareness-raising and education: Raising awareness about enforced disappearance is essential to inform communities about the concept, available support and existing processes to search for the disappeared and seek justice and reparation. 

• Building and supporting strong networks: Given the specificity of enforced disappearance as a continuing human rights violation and the long-term struggle of families for truth and justice, strong networks, including the existing family-led networks at the national and international levels, should be supported.