Hiding in Plain Sight: Victim Participation in the Search for Disappeared Persons, a Contribution to (Procedural) Justice

Abstract

ABSTRACT 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.