30 August: International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. A debt to the victims that remains unpaid
Every 30 August, the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances compels us to pause and face up to one of the cruellest forms of violence that exists: that of snatching a person away, erasing all trace of them and then denying any information about their whereabouts. This year, the date coincides with a particularly significant anniversary: it is twenty years since the United Nations General Assembly adopted, on 20 December 2006, the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
That text marked a historic milestone. For the first time, the international community recognised enforced disappearance as a distinct offence, with its own definition set out in Article 2: arrest, detention, abduction or any other form of deprivation of liberty committed by agents of the State, or with their authorisation, support or acquiescence, followed by a refusal to acknowledge such deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person. This definition is not merely a technical matter: it is what ensures that, as long as the victim’s fate remains unknown, the offence is considered to be ongoing, and that the search for the truth is not subject to a statute of limitations.
The Convention also introduced a crucial element for FIBGAR’s work: the explicit recognition, in its Article 24, of the right of families to know the truth about the circumstances of the disappearance, the fate of the disappeared person and the outcome of the investigations. This right to the truth, together with the rights to justice and reparation, forms the framework upon which we base much of our work in the field of democratic memory.
Twenty years after its adoption, however, the Convention remains an unfulfilled promise. Numerous states have not yet ratified it, and in many of those that have, the mechanisms for search, identification and redress remain inadequate or simply non-existent. Spain is a telling example: despite the progress brought about by Law 20/2022 on Democratic Memory, thousands of families continue to search for their loved ones, and a particularly painful chapter — that of the enforced disappearances of children, known as the ‘stolen babies’ — remains largely unresolved.
It is precisely for this reason that we at FIBGAR have been working for months on a project dedicated to raising awareness of and documenting the forced disappearances of children in Spain during the Franco regime and the early years of democracy: Forced Disappearances of Children: Dialogue for Justice and Legislative Change. Through a social media content campaign, interviews with victims and the production of audiovisual materials, we aim to give a voice to the mothers, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons who, for decades, have sought answers only to be met with institutional silence.
This work also draws on the expert knowledge we have gathered through various activities, such as the meeting held on 3 June at the Madrid Press Association, which brought together victims, specialists in DNA identification and victim support, and which has enabled us to better understand both the technical advances and the enormous administrative and judicial barriers that families continue to face.
30 August must not be just another symbolic date on the calendar. It is an opportunity to remember that enforced disappearance is not a phenomenon of the past, but an open wound that continues to claim victims and demands active responses from States. Twenty years after the Convention, the challenge is no longer a legal one, but one of political will and resources: to guarantee effective searches, accessible DNA databases, streamlined judicial processes and, above all, full recognition of families’ right to the truth.
At FIBGAR, we will continue to work to ensure that this right ceases to be a mere aspiration and becomes a reality for all those who continue to search for their loved ones who were taken from them.
