Knowra Enforced disappearance Enforced disappearance Enforced disappearance is the deprivation of a person’s liberty by state agents or with state support, followed by concealment or denial of the person’s fate or whereabouts. It places the person outside the protection of the law and continues until the truth is established.
International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance : A United Nations treaty requiring states to prevent, investigate, and punish enforced disappearance. Its definition captures the linked acts of state involvement, deprivation of liberty, and concealment.
Dirty War : The campaign of state repression in Argentina, especially from 1976 to 1983, involving clandestine detention and disappearances. The scale of disappearances under the military dictatorship galvanized international attention.
Emilio Mignone : An Argentine lawyer and human-rights activist who co-founded the Center for Legal and Social Studies. He helped document dictatorship-era disappearances and pursue legal accountability in Argentina.
Forensic anthropology : The application of anthropological methods to identify human remains and investigate deaths. It can identify remains and establish evidence about disappeared people’s fate.
Psychological torture : The infliction of severe mental suffering through threats, coercion, or other abusive treatment. Uncertainty about a loved one’s fate can impose prolonged anguish on families.
Secret detention : Detention in an undisclosed place or without official acknowledgment of a person’s custody. It can be the hidden custody at the center of an enforced disappearance.
Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo : An Argentine human-rights group formed by mothers seeking information about children disappeared by the dictatorship. Their public protests made families’ demands for truth visible beyond Argentina.
Estela de Carlotto : An Argentine human-rights activist and president of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. Her organization searches for children born to detained mothers and taken during the dictatorship.
Missing person : A person whose whereabouts are unknown, whether because of accident, conflict, migration, crime, or other circumstances. Enforced disappearance is a state-linked form of the broader problem of missing persons.
Forced disappearance of children : The concealment or falsification of children’s identities and whereabouts after their unlawful separation from families, often during state repression. In Argentina, children taken from disappeared parents became a distinct target of searches and identity restoration.
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