Today, FEMED brings together 23 member associations from 11 different countries.
Recognizing the scale of the phenomenon of enforced disappearance in the Euro-Mediterranean region, the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) organized the first Euro-Mediterranean meeting of representatives and families of the disappeared, in partnership with the Collectif des familles de disparus en Algérie (CFDA) and the Mouvement de soutien aux libanais détenus arbitrairement (SOLIDA).
From February 7 to 11, 2000 in Paris, Geneva and Brussels, the first Euro-Mediterranean meeting brought together families of the "disappeared" and their representatives from the Mediterranean region, support committees and national and international human rights NGOs.
At the end of this meeting, aware of the importance of unifying their respective movements to denounce and fight against enforced disappearances, the need arose to form a larger, structured entity to serve the families of the disappeared. The Euro-Mediterranean Coalition against Enforced Disappearances was thus created and formalized. The aim is to fight more effectively against enforced disappearances in countries around the Mediterranean.
In June 2005, during the Mediterranean Social Forum (FSMED) held in Barcelona, the members of the Coalition recognized the need to formalize their alliance by giving it a legal existence, which until then had only been informal. In May 2007, the Constitutive Assembly was held in Beirut, Lebanon. The Assembly brought together the following associations: SOLIDA (support for Lebanese arbitrarily detained) and the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH); the Collectif des familles de disparus en Algérie, (CFDA) and SOS Disparus; the Association de Parents et Amis de disparus au Maroc (APADM), the Comité de Coordination des familles de disparus du Maroc (CCFDM), and Mothers for Peace from Turkey.
The Euro-Mediterranean Federation against Enforced Disappearances (FEMED) took over from the Coalition, and was officially born on May 27, 2007. Legal and strategic issues were debated and decided. Statutes and internal regulations were adopted. An executive committee and a board of directors were elected. The founding members had initially planned to locate FEMED's headquarters in Beirut, but the political context made it impossible to register the organization in Lebanon. The headquarters were therefore temporarily transferred to Paris. Since January 31, 2008, FEMED has been registered in France.