11 AUG STUDY OF “FAMILY ASSOCIATIONS OF DISAPPEARED AND MISSING PERSONS: LESSONS FROM LATIN AMERICA AND BEYOND”

We’re not the first who Forming victim bond groups, we’ve been preceded by several countries like us, suffered from dictatorship and enforced disappearance, the determination of these groups has resulted in several achievements, including memorializing their loved ones, knowing their fate and achieving some kind of justice for them.

The Caesar Families Association shares with you a publication titled “Family Associations of Disappeared and Missing Persons: Lessons from Latin America and Beyond” which is the result of a collaboration between the Dealing with the Past Program at “Swisspeace”, Caesar Families Association and the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM).

This publication provides considerations to be taken into account when working with Syrian families of disappeared and missing persons. It highlights the needs and wishes of the victims and their families and the best methods to identify and deal with these needs, also how victims’ families (who in many cases qualify as victims themselves) should be viewed and perceived, and what organizations must do to empower victims (or relatives of victims) so that they can defend and advocate their own cause.

This publication also presents lessons learned about the formation, structure and the activities of family associations. It is based on a literature review about the agency of families of disappeared and missing persons, as well as interviews conducted by the authors with different organizations from Algeria, Colombia, Cyprus, El Salvador, Honduras, Morocco, Nepal and Peru and with an expert on the subject matter.

It is worth noting that the publisher of this publication is “Swisspeace”, a practice-oriented peace research institute. It analyses the causes of violent conflicts and develops strategies for their peaceful transformation.