FEMED's mandate is to coordinate the efforts of its member associations with a view to shedding full light on the situation in Europe.
on past and present cases of enforced disappearance.
The effects of enforced disappearance for victims
Man is part of history. He is a social being who lives in a state, his history in the history of his fellow human beings. However, the history of mankind proves time and again that intersubjectivity has not always been the scene of perpetual peace, alacrity and permanent respect for human rights. Unfortunately, the history of mankind has also seen a frantic succession of tragic events, including bloody wars, absolutism and the constant negation of some people by others. These abuses of state power even lead us to reflect on the boundary between the state and the state of nature. In this conflictual relationship between men and the state, enforced disappearance is one of the many violations of human rights. In English, we speak of "enforced disappearances", and since the Argentine dictatorship of 1976, of "desaparecidos". In his recent novel Météorologue, about totalitarian terror, Olivier Rolin goes so far as to write: "the formidable killing machine is also a machine for erasing death". It's a testament to the sheer scale of this violation of human rights.
The first international reaction came from the Organization of American States (OAS) to the disappearances in Chile following the 1973 coup d'état. It followed demonstrations of a desire for justice by civil society and families of the disappeared in Latin America. To combat enforced disappearance on a global scale, the United Nations General Assembly has progressively adopted several international instruments, including an international convention against torture and inhuman and degrading treatment (1984) and another for the protection of all persons from enforced disappearance in 2006.
To date, enforced disappearances occur on virtually every continent. Exact figures on the phenomenon are difficult to establish due to the deteriorating security context prevailing in certain regions. According to the UN, nationals of countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Iraq, Syria and Libya are common victims of enforced disappearance.
Enforced disappearance not only constitutes a direct violation of the victim's rights, but also has consequences for his or her family and loved ones, who are recognized under international law as "indirect victims".
Firstly, as a direct victim, enforced disappearance constitutes an undeniable violation of his or her right to life, security of person and liberty (in general). Nor can the disappeared person legitimately plead his or her case before a court of law, given the total absence of information about his or her fate, place of detention and alleged grievances. Enforced disappearance is an act of torture. The first reason is that, when it takes place, there is a high risk that the arbitrarily detained person will be physically tortured. Secondly, the suffering and anguish endured by the victim, due to his clear conviction that he is at the mercy of strangers who are holding him and that no one will come to save him, is in itself another form of psychological torture.
The second category of victims is undoubtedly the families, loved ones and friends of the disappeared, and society as a whole. When a person is the victim of enforced disappearance, family members are also indirectly deprived of a number of their fundamental rights. The right to the truth is violated by the absence of any information about the fate and whereabouts of the disappeared person, and the reasons for their disappearance. And as long as this right is not respected, neither is their right to justice. To make reparation for such a crime, these first two fundamental rights must first be implemented. So, by making a person disappear, we bring to his or her family the same psychological anguish felt by the loved one who has disappeared.
In some families, where the dead only really die once they have been buried in accordance with custom, this is a real ordeal. From this point of view, the continuing dimension of enforced disappearance will prolong the anguish of families and loved ones for as long as no light is shed on the fate of the missing person.
For children, the forced disappearance of a father or mother is a threat to their future. Their destinies may take a different turn, as the disappeared father or mother can no longer guarantee them the moral, emotional and above all material security they need for their future development and socio-professional integration. If there's no longer a father or mother, no more school, no more vacations, etc., their future may take a different turn.
Enforced disappearance can also have an indirect effect on friends and colleagues. For example, when the disappeared person is a human rights defender, a political opponent or a journalist, this also represents a constant source of fear and insecurity for the whole body. This recurrent feeling of being liable to disappear is in itself a violation of their rights to freedom in the broadest sense, to personal security and so on.
Finally, their enforced disappearance represents a real threat to society as a whole. Indeed, their persistence is the expression of a world of insecurity in which every man represents a potential wolf for his fellow man. A dictatorship that respects neither the right to indifference, nor freedom of conscience, opinion and expression. It goes without saying that enforced disappearances reflect, if proof were needed, the State's failure to fulfill the promise it made to us: to protect us from the violence that prevails in the state of nature. The state of security and freedom.
In a world where human reason is capable of the worst and the best, we still hope one day to achieve a society where no one is a victim - directly or indirectly - of enforced disappearance.