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enforced disappearance

Searching for the missing in Syria. Photo: portrait of Karla Quintana wearing the official IIMP waistcoat in the field.
Looking for the missing in Syria: “It’s titanic, but we are moving”
24 April 2025 by Julia Crawford
Mexican human rights lawyer Karla Quintana was appointed in December to head the UN’s Institution on Missing Persons in Syria. In an exclusive interview, she talked with Justice about how this body had to reshape its priorities after the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
Parents and peers of killed or missing students during a press conference on October 6, 2014 in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. Authorities discovered over the weekend six adjoining pits containing 28 bodies, some badly burned and in pieces, on a hill outside the Guerrero state city of Iguala, where the students were last seen. Enforced disappearances in Mexico
27 February 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
On the night of September 26, 2014, 43 students disappeared from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School in the state of Guerrero, approximately 300 km south of Mexico City. Initially, the state authorities said they were abducted and [...]
In Bangladesh, following the demonstrations in the summer of 2024 that led to mass crimes, the International Crimes Tribunal is back in action to try those responsible. But there are reports of concern about the operation of the local justice system and its politicisation. Photo: Demonstrators, seen against the light, stand on a high structure, one of them waving a Bangladeshi flag. The second life of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal
20 February 2025 by David Bergman
Six months after the prime minister of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina, fled the country, the new interim government has started the process of seeking accountability against politicians and security force officials accused of crimes ag [...]
In Syria, after the fall of Assad, the search for the disappeared often begins in mass graves. Photo: People digging at the bottom of a deep mass grave while children watch from above. Syria: getting it right in the search for the disappeared
7 January 2025 by Luis Fondebrider
Since the fall of the Assad regime a month ago, many reports told the stories of Syrians trying to find out about their relatives who had disappeared. Infamous detention centers have revealed their murderous secrets. Mass graves w [...]
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Enforced disappearances in Ukraine - The mother of the missing Andrii Shapoval shows a video of her son on her phone.
24 June 2024 by Tetiana Fedorkova
Enforced disappearance in Ukraine: Andrii’s mother's tortured path On the morning of April 12, 2022, the day of his 28th birthday, Andrii Shapoval went to his friend’s grandmother’s house in Balakliya, eastern Ukraine, which was under occupation. He never returned home. Through this story, a Ukra [...]
Justice for Syria and the International court of Justice (ICJ) - Photo: a poster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the streets of Damascus.
7 June 2024 by Veronica Bellintani + Adrian Lakrichi + Mouhanad Sharabati
Why isn’t the ICJ bolder on Syria? One year after the June 8th 2023 complaint and six months after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered measures against the Syrian government, torture and human rights violations are still committed as reported by the UN [...]
In Guatemala, family members who were victims of enforced disappearances celebrate the verdict in a trial in Belgium.
30 January 2024 by Marlies Stappers + Sanne Weber
A Belgian court provides hope for justice in Guatemala In December 2023, a historical trial took place in Leuven, Belgium. Five high-level officials from Guatemala’s military and political apparatus stood trial for murder, enforced disappearance and torture of Belgian missionaries in [...]
Looking for the missing in Ukraine - Ukrainian rescuers after the destruction of a residential building in Dnipro (Ukraine) by a missile strike.
29 September 2023 by Margherita Capacci
Looking for the missing in Ukraine Between 20,000 and 30,000 Ukrainians, soldiers and civilians, are considered missing since the start of Russia’s full scale invasion. Some were killed and their bodies never identified, or never returned. Others were abducted. Sin [...]
Belarusian Yuri Harauski acquitted after Swiss trial
29 September 2023 by Julia Crawford
In surprise move, Swiss court acquits Belarusian of enforced disappearances Belarusian Yuri Harauski was on Thursday September 28 acquitted by a Swiss cantonal court, despite his confession, of forcibly disappearing leading opposition figures in his country in 1999. The court said his statements were cont [...]
Yuri Harauski on trial in Switzerland for enforced disappearances in Belarus
19 September 2023 by Julia Crawford
Belarus “hit squad” member on trial in Switzerland for enforced disappearances The Belarusian has confessed to the crimes. His trial, which opens on September 19 under universal jurisdiction at canton St. Gallen district court in Rorschach is scheduled to last only two days. A former official under President [...]
Human rights and transitional justice in the Maldives - Photo of a paradise beach with an image of a demonstration against the enforced disappearance of Ahmed Rilwan.
8 September 2023 by Julia Crawford
Justice in paradise The Maldives, an Indian Ocean tourist paradise with a history of political violence and human rights abuses, are to hold presidential elections on September 9. The outcome could determine the future of the archipelago’s difficult [...]
Enforced disappearances: Germany seeks its place in international law - A relative of Syrian victims demonstrates outside the Koblenz court.
25 August 2023 by Hannah El-Hitami
Enforced disappearances and the German contradiction Last June, Germany was among 83 states supporting the creation of a UN body on missing persons in Syria. And yet it does not itself have the crime of enforced disappearance in its national criminal code, and a fruitless definition [...]
Enforced disappearances in Turkey -
13 July 2023 by Guillaume Perrier
Enforced disappearances in Turkey continue under Erdogan May’s elections in Turkey have strengthened the hand of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has been in power for 20 years and has just appointed his former security chief Hakan Fidan as foreign minister.  This has dashed human rights [...]
Enforced disappearances in The Gambia - Photos of people who disappeared during Yahya Jammeh's reign.
3 July 2023 by Mariam Sankanu
The disappeared in The Gambia, a missing investigation In its recently disclosed implementation plan, the Gambian government says it will set up a task force to complete and expand the work accomplished by the Truth commission on enforced disappearances. Four cases involving five indi [...]
In Argentina, a man is dragged on the ground by the military
19 July 2022 by Guido Bilbao
Argentina’s Ultimate Rendez-Vous with Justice On July 6, 19 former members of the Argentine Armed Forces accused of crimes of torture, kidnapping, homicide, as well as raids, aggravated robberies and aggravated sexual abuse against hundreds of detainees, most of them disappea [...]
A priest and musicians celebrate a mass in memory of 3 victims of enforced disappearances in Guatemala in the 1980s.
8 July 2022 by Sanne Weber
Universal jurisdiction: what can Belgian justice bring for Guatemalan victims? In the early 1980s, three Belgian missionaries were killed and disappeared in Guatemala. More than 40 years after the crimes took place, on June 14 a Belgian court has ordered the arrest of five former high-level Guatemalan govern [...]
Grave of a missing and unidentified person in Colombia (inscription:
7 June 2022 by Andrés Bermúdez Liévano
In Colombia, the end of a mother’s 20-year quest for a missing daughter Arnobia Gutiérrez’s quest is about to finally come to an end as soon as she receives, in a solemn ceremony, the remains of her daughter Natalia who had been missing for 20 years after she was recruited as a child by the ELN guerri [...]
Different figures (tens of thousands) of forced disappearances in Colombia. In the background, silhouette of an unknown face.
19 April 2022 by Adriana Rudling
What’s behind the numbers of disappeared in the Colombian armed conflict? There are conflicting numbers on forced disappearance in Colombia. Over the years, different registers have appeared that have varying scope and purpose. This recently caused alarm with the UN Committee on Forced Disappearance. Re [...]
Kamel Matmati
28 May 2021 by Olfa Belhassine
Tunisia: glimmers of hope in the Matmati trial It is 30 years since the murder and disappearance of young Tunisian Islamist activist Kamel Matmati and three years since the trial for him opened, the first to be held before the specialized transitional justice chambers. On 25 M [...]