Explaining disappearances as a tool of political terror

Despite the widespread use of disappearances as a central tool of terror in recent decades, little is known about the emergence of the phenomenon or its underlying rationale. We argue that growing international accountability norms, coupled with the improved quality of reporting human rights abuses, paradoxically reshaped the repressive strategies of certain regimes and pushed them to deploy more clandestine and extrajudicial forms of repression, predominantly disappearances. We also explore the timing of disappearances: when a state decides to deploy a particular instrument of terror can greatly benefit our understanding of why it was used. We show that repressive regimes tend to use disappearances in the first period after a coup, taking advantage of the general confusion and opacity to secure strategic benefits and protect the regime from external scrutiny and future accountability. Our findings contribute to the growing literature on human rights and political repression by highlighting an ‘unintended consequence’ of international accountability norms: repressive regimes turn to clandestine crimes

Vos sabés quién sos? : la gesta de las Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo

En marzo de 1976, una junta militar tomó el poder en la Argentina. Este no fue un golpe de Estado más, como los muchos que se produjeron en mi país. El golpe abrió la puerta al régimen más sangriento que la Argentina ha llegado a conocer. Los militares consideraban cualquier crítica al régimen como un signo de anti-argentinidad, como un comportamiento subversivo que necesitaba ser destruido para proteger al país. Miles de personas fueron secuestradas, torturadas y asesinadas. Alrededor de 30.000 personas, la mayoría jóvenes entre 16 y 35 años, fueron desaparecidos. Llevados a centros clandestinos de detención, nunca más se volvió a saber de ellos. La sociedad Argentina quedó paralizada por el miedo

Searching for life: the grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo and the disappeared children of Argentina

FROM THE BOOK :"I want to touch you and kiss you.""You are my mother's sister and only one year older; you must have something of my mother in you." - A found child after being returned to her family Searching for Life traces the courageous plight of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who challenged the ruthless dictatorship that ruled Argentina from 1976 to 1983. Acting as both detectives and human rights advocates in an effort to find and recover their grandchildren, the Grandmothers identified fifty-seven of an estimated 500 children who had been kidnapped or born in detention centers. The Grandmothers' work also led to the creation of the National Genetic Data Bank, the only bank of its kind in the world, and to Article 8 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the "right to identity," that is now incorporated in the new adoption legislation in Argentina. Rita Arditti has conducted extensive interviews with twenty Grandmothers and twenty-five others connected with their work; her book is a testament to the courage, persistence, and strength of these "traditional" older women.The importance of the Grandmothers' work has effectively transcended the Argentine situation. Their tenacious pursuit of justice defies the culture of impunity and the historical amnesia that pervades Argentina and much of the rest of the world today. In addition to reconciling the "living disappeared" with their families of origin, these Grandmothers restored a chapter of history that, too, had been abducted and concealed from its rightful heirs