The Disappeared: Mothers, Grandmothers and a New Treaty

An 'enforced disappearance' occurs when agents of the state, or those acting with its support, detain a person and then refuse to acknowledge it or reveal the person's fate. The tactic spread terror under several Latin American military governments in the 1970s and 1980s, because families could neither grieve nor seek justice. In Argentina, mothers of the disappeared began walking in Buenos Aires' Plaza de Mayo in April 1977, wearing white headscarves, defying a regime that banned public gatherings.

The Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo searched for children taken from detained parents, later using genetic testing to identify more than a hundred of them as adults. Their activism helped create new law: the Rome Statute lists enforced disappearance as a crime against humanity, and a UN Convention adopted in 2006 recognises families' right to know the truth. The issue is global: disappearances have been reported in conflicts and crackdowns on every continent.