Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0002
L. Payne, Karina Ansolabehere
This chapter establishes a holistic approach to understanding disappearances in post-transition countries. It considers the historical repertoires of disappearance that emerge during periods of authoritarian rule and armed conflict. It further argues that four logics behind disappearances in those situations continue into the post-transition. These include the clandestine logic, or hiding crimes against humanity from domestic and international scrutiny. Those disappearances also tend to involve marginalised populations; a ‘disposable people’ logic creates framing devices that transform citizens into those without rights or visibility. A political-economy logic emerges with cheap and exploitable workers, who are disappeared when their labour utility is exhausted; those with economic and political power commit these atrocities with impunity. The logic of ambiguous loss becomes a form of social control. Grieving processes are blocked when relatives lack certainty that the person is gone. They further lack the necessary evidence of death and wrongdoing to pursue redress. These four logics together, the project contends, explain why disappearances previously studied only in authoritarian or armed conflict contexts prevail also in the post-transition.
{"title":"Conceptualising Post-Transition Disappearances","authors":"L. Payne, Karina Ansolabehere","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter establishes a holistic approach to understanding disappearances in post-transition countries. It considers the historical repertoires of disappearance that emerge during periods of authoritarian rule and armed conflict. It further argues that four logics behind disappearances in those situations continue into the post-transition. These include the clandestine logic, or hiding crimes against humanity from domestic and international scrutiny. Those disappearances also tend to involve marginalised populations; a ‘disposable people’ logic creates framing devices that transform citizens into those without rights or visibility. A political-economy logic emerges with cheap and exploitable workers, who are disappeared when their labour utility is exhausted; those with economic and political power commit these atrocities with impunity. The logic of ambiguous loss becomes a form of social control. Grieving processes are blocked when relatives lack certainty that the person is gone. They further lack the necessary evidence of death and wrongdoing to pursue redress. These four logics together, the project contends, explain why disappearances previously studied only in authoritarian or armed conflict contexts prevail also in the post-transition.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"69 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125510926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0003
B. Frey
Enforced disappearance is one of the most serious crimes, prohibited across several regimes of international law, including human rights, humanitarian law and criminal law, yet Latin American governments and officials frequently avoid legal accountability for these violations. The dynamics of disappearances in post-transitional democracies call for a reconceptualisation of the international human rights framework, by reconsidering the meaning of state acquiescence. This chapter argues that a relevant and effective framework must embrace a contextual analysis and foreground the positive obligations of states to search and investigate these crimes, using generally accepted principles found in due diligence jurisprudence to measure the legal adequacy of the state’s responses to reported disappearances. Stretching the legal framework is necessary to disrupt the benefits of impunity, which violate the rights of victims, allow disappearances to thrive, and harm societies by hiding the truth.
{"title":"Conceptualising Disappearances in International Law","authors":"B. Frey","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0003","url":null,"abstract":"Enforced disappearance is one of the most serious crimes, prohibited across several regimes of international law, including human rights, humanitarian law and criminal law, yet Latin American governments and officials frequently avoid legal accountability for these violations. The dynamics of disappearances in post-transitional democracies call for a reconceptualisation of the international human rights framework, by reconsidering the meaning of state acquiescence. This chapter argues that a relevant and effective framework must embrace a contextual analysis and foreground the positive obligations of states to search and investigate these crimes, using generally accepted principles found in due diligence jurisprudence to measure the legal adequacy of the state’s responses to reported disappearances. Stretching the legal framework is necessary to disrupt the benefits of impunity, which violate the rights of victims, allow disappearances to thrive, and harm societies by hiding the truth.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"17 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"131060109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0006
Sandra Serrano, Volga de Pina Ravest
This chapter explains that the General Law on Disappearances in Mexico is a legal change achieved by a broad mobilisation of families of victims of disappearance in a challenging context of persistent violence in the country. The Law helps to improve the relevant standards related to searching for disappeared persons, guaranteeing the rights of the victims’ families, furthering the investigation of forced disappearance caused by the government and/or individuals, as well as creating the institutional structures focused on the search for persons. Despite this, the law’s innovative advances coexist alongside previous institutional mechanisms that perpetuate practices contrary to the rights of victims and their families, which risk neutralising the Law. Accordingly, the chapter focuses on the promotion of legal mobilisation strategies in countries, such as Mexico, which accept normative and institutional changes without worrying about their enforcement, since, in practice, new provisions clash with previously created structures that have similar legal authority but greater decision-making power, and are, thus, better able to exercise that authority.
{"title":"The Legal Framework on Disappearances in Mexico: From Demands to the Law and Back to Demands","authors":"Sandra Serrano, Volga de Pina Ravest","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0006","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explains that the General Law on Disappearances in Mexico is a legal change achieved by a broad mobilisation of families of victims of disappearance in a challenging context of persistent violence in the country. The Law helps to improve the relevant standards related to searching for disappeared persons, guaranteeing the rights of the victims’ families, furthering the investigation of forced disappearance caused by the government and/or individuals, as well as creating the institutional structures focused on the search for persons. Despite this, the law’s innovative advances coexist alongside previous institutional mechanisms that perpetuate practices contrary to the rights of victims and their families, which risk neutralising the Law. Accordingly, the chapter focuses on the promotion of legal mobilisation strategies in countries, such as Mexico, which accept normative and institutional changes without worrying about their enforcement, since, in practice, new provisions clash with previously created structures that have similar legal authority but greater decision-making power, and are, thus, better able to exercise that authority.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"97 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"125984682","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0007
Débora Maria da Silva, Raiane Patrícia Severino Assumpção
In this chapter, Débora Maria da Silva gives testimony to the disappearance and killing of her son Edson on 15 May 2006 in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. His death occurred as part of what has been termed the ‘May Crimes’ in which state security forces have been implicated in the murder and enforced disappearance of hundreds of youths in that month alone. Mothers, like Débora Maria da Silva, organised the May Mothers group to seek investigation and redress for the crimes they call a genocide of young, poor, black youths. Because state authorities deem these victims to be criminals, not because of their acts but because of what they look like and where they live, they become ‘disposable’. Mothers have transformed their personal loss into collective action to demand an end to the violence, investigation into deaths and disappearance, and justice for wrongdoing.
在本章中，德博拉-玛丽亚-达席尔瓦（Débora Maria da Silva）就其子埃德森（Edson）于 2006 年 5 月 15 日在巴西圣保罗桑托斯失踪和遇害一事提供了证词。他的死亡是被称为 "五月犯罪 "的一部分，国家安全部队仅在当月就涉嫌谋杀和强迫失踪了数百名青年。像德博拉-玛丽亚-达席尔瓦（Débora Maria da Silva）这样的母亲们组织了 "五月母亲 "团体，以寻求对她们称之为对年轻、贫穷、黑人青年的种族灭绝罪行进行调查和补救。国家当局将这些受害者视为罪犯，不是因为他们的行为，而是因为他们的长相和居住地，因此他们成了 "可有可无 "的人。母亲们将个人的损失转化为集体行动，要求结束暴力，调查死亡和失踪事件，为不法行为伸张正义。
{"title":"Woman, Mother, Human Rights Defender","authors":"Débora Maria da Silva, Raiane Patrícia Severino Assumpção","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0007","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Débora Maria da Silva gives testimony to the disappearance and killing of her son Edson on 15 May 2006 in Santos, São Paulo, Brazil. His death occurred as part of what has been termed the ‘May Crimes’ in which state security forces have been implicated in the murder and enforced disappearance of hundreds of youths in that month alone. Mothers, like Débora Maria da Silva, organised the May Mothers group to seek investigation and redress for the crimes they call a genocide of young, poor, black youths. Because state authorities deem these victims to be criminals, not because of their acts but because of what they look like and where they live, they become ‘disposable’. Mothers have transformed their personal loss into collective action to demand an end to the violence, investigation into deaths and disappearance, and justice for wrongdoing.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130723491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0009
Marlon Alberto Weichert
In the post-transition period, Brazil has experienced extremely high levels of lethal violence, perpetrated by both criminal groups and public security forces, which has primarily targeted poor black youths. Despite this high level of violence in a democracy, state agencies persist in their failure to carry out effective measures to reduce and prevent systematic death and disappearance, and to investigate and prosecute homicides and disappearances that victimise this population. Evidence of summary execution and enforced disappearance, moreover, indicate that the Brazilian state is also responsible for a significant portion of these crimes. In response, public authorities have recently adopted a public discourse of crime prevention that exempts police from being held accountable for killing criminal suspects and even encouraging the murder of those criminal suspects during police operations. This chapter argues that the systematic death and disappearance of these civilian populations may be seen conceptually as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute. While prior to 2019 it was possible to argue that the killing of poor black youths constituted a policy of omission, after that year evidence suggests that Brazilian security agents have crossed a threshold into actively committing a systematic crime against humanity against citizens.
{"title":"Systematic Recurrence of Murders and Disappearances in Democratic Brazil","authors":"Marlon Alberto Weichert","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0009","url":null,"abstract":"In the post-transition period, Brazil has experienced extremely high levels of lethal violence, perpetrated by both criminal groups and public security forces, which has primarily targeted poor black youths. Despite this high level of violence in a democracy, state agencies persist in their failure to carry out effective measures to reduce and prevent systematic death and disappearance, and to investigate and prosecute homicides and disappearances that victimise this population. Evidence of summary execution and enforced disappearance, moreover, indicate that the Brazilian state is also responsible for a significant portion of these crimes. In response, public authorities have recently adopted a public discourse of crime prevention that exempts police from being held accountable for killing criminal suspects and even encouraging the murder of those criminal suspects during police operations. This chapter argues that the systematic death and disappearance of these civilian populations may be seen conceptually as a crime against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute. While prior to 2019 it was possible to argue that the killing of poor black youths constituted a policy of omission, after that year evidence suggests that Brazilian security agents have crossed a threshold into actively committing a systematic crime against humanity against citizens.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"1 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"130746078","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0004
Lulú Herrera, Paula Cuellar Cuellar
Lulú Herrera tells her story of the search for her disappeared husband, eight-year-old son, and two brothers-in-law. In the process, Herrera discovered others searching for the disappeared and with them she became a founding member of the organisation Forces United for Our Disappeared in Coahuila, Mexico. She realised how invisible these disappearances are even when the numbers are so high. Indeed, they were unknown to her before her own life was transformed by disappearance. She was forced to become a different person to be able to carry out the search. A search that continues for her family members and those of others in Coahuila.
{"title":"My Promise to Look for You","authors":"Lulú Herrera, Paula Cuellar Cuellar","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0004","url":null,"abstract":"Lulú Herrera tells her story of the search for her disappeared husband, eight-year-old son, and two brothers-in-law. In the process, Herrera discovered others searching for the disappeared and with them she became a founding member of the organisation Forces United for Our Disappeared in Coahuila, Mexico. She realised how invisible these disappearances are even when the numbers are so high. Indeed, they were unknown to her before her own life was transformed by disappearance. She was forced to become a different person to be able to carry out the search. A search that continues for her family members and those of others in Coahuila.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"84 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127007086","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0015
B. Frey
The guidelines on criminal and forensic investigation found in The Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016) (OHCHR 2017) are a source of practical assistance in disappearance cases, establishing ‘a common standard of performance in investigating potentially unlawful death or suspected enforced disappearance’. The Minnesota Protocol offers a set of legal and practical guidelines for governments, institutions and individuals to carry out effective and transparent investigations in cases of death and/or disappearance. This chapter summarises the legal guidelines on the state’s duty to investigate disappearances, and practical guidelines on witness interviews, crime scene investigations, excavation of graves and autopsy procedures. The chapter explains the Protocol’s best practices for investigating cases in which bodies are missing, as well as considerations for dealing with family members in the cases.
{"title":"Using the Minnesota Protocol to Investigate Disappearance Cases","authors":"B. Frey","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0015","url":null,"abstract":"The guidelines on criminal and forensic investigation found in The Minnesota Protocol on the Investigation of Potentially Unlawful Death (2016) (OHCHR 2017) are a source of practical assistance in disappearance cases, establishing ‘a common standard of performance in investigating potentially unlawful death or suspected enforced disappearance’. The Minnesota Protocol offers a set of legal and practical guidelines for governments, institutions and individuals to carry out effective and transparent investigations in cases of death and/or disappearance. This chapter summarises the legal guidelines on the state’s duty to investigate disappearances, and practical guidelines on witness interviews, crime scene investigations, excavation of graves and autopsy procedures. The chapter explains the Protocol’s best practices for investigating cases in which bodies are missing, as well as considerations for dealing with family members in the cases.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115245936","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0005
Karina Ansolabehere, Alvaro Martos
The research for this chapter focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of disappearances in Mexico through four logics: its clandestine nature, disposable peoples, political economy, and ambiguous loss. Each of these logics describes and explains the subtle meanings behind disappearances in an environment characterised by a convergence of multiple forms of violence. Disappearance in this context is used as a specific repertoire of violent action. The empirical analysis uses an original database containing information on 1364 disappearance cases documented by human rights NGOs in Northeastern México (Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila) between 2007 and 2017, in the context of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ as well us document analysis.
{"title":"Disappearances in Mexico: An Analysis Based on the Northeast Region","authors":"Karina Ansolabehere, Alvaro Martos","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0005","url":null,"abstract":"The research for this chapter focuses on the analysis of the characteristics of disappearances in Mexico through four logics: its clandestine nature, disposable peoples, political economy, and ambiguous loss. Each of these logics describes and explains the subtle meanings behind disappearances in an environment characterised by a convergence of multiple forms of violence. Disappearance in this context is used as a specific repertoire of violent action. The empirical analysis uses an original database containing information on 1364 disappearance cases documented by human rights NGOs in Northeastern México (Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and Coahuila) between 2007 and 2017, in the context of the so-called ‘war on drugs’ as well us document analysis.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124012672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-06-24DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0019
Volga de Pina Ravest
In this chapter, Volga de Pina analyses the principal characteristics of the search mechanism created in Mexico with the adoption of the 2017 General Law of Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance committed by Private Parties, and the National System of Search for Persons. The 2017 General Law was the result of a long lobbying process by networks of relatives of disappeared persons, Mexican non-governmental organisations, experts, and international agencies, that participated directly in defining its contents. The model that emerged separates the search from criminal investigation and places emphasis on locating disappeared persons, the main priority of the relatives. With this mechanism, the state’s obligations related to search are widened. To accomplish that goal, new definitions of disappeared and missing persons, a National Search Commission and local commissions in thirty-two states in the country, and specific tools and coordination systems were developed. The design emerged directly out of relatives’ experiences in searching for their family members. The observations that de Pina makes about the process is based on her participation in the discussion of the General Law and her experiences as a member of the Council of Citizens who advised and supervised the mechanism.
{"title":"How to Create a Search Mechanism for Disappeared Persons: Lessons from Mexico","authors":"Volga de Pina Ravest","doi":"10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197267226.003.0019","url":null,"abstract":"In this chapter, Volga de Pina analyses the principal characteristics of the search mechanism created in Mexico with the adoption of the 2017 General Law of Forced Disappearance of Persons, Disappearance committed by Private Parties, and the National System of Search for Persons. The 2017 General Law was the result of a long lobbying process by networks of relatives of disappeared persons, Mexican non-governmental organisations, experts, and international agencies, that participated directly in defining its contents. The model that emerged separates the search from criminal investigation and places emphasis on locating disappeared persons, the main priority of the relatives. With this mechanism, the state’s obligations related to search are widened. To accomplish that goal, new definitions of disappeared and missing persons, a National Search Commission and local commissions in thirty-two states in the country, and specific tools and coordination systems were developed. The design emerged directly out of relatives’ experiences in searching for their family members. The observations that de Pina makes about the process is based on her participation in the discussion of the General Law and her experiences as a member of the Council of Citizens who advised and supervised the mechanism.","PeriodicalId":423029,"journal":{"name":"Disappearances in the Post-Transition Era in Latin America","volume":"9 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-06-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129789802","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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