Across the world, political regimes have and continue to use forced disappearances as a weapon of war and social control. It is arguably the ultimate crime against humanity as the human itself is denied any right to belong to this world. Creating widespread fear that seeks to further deny all forms of justice and recovery, its lasting effects continue to devastate millions. 

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But how are we to understand this phenomena? Why has insufficient attention been given to it in the past? What are its spatial and temporal dimensions? How do we understand its psychological implications? What does it mean when thinking about perpetrators, victims and witnesses? And most importantly, how should we respond? 

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Since 2017, the violence of disappearance has become one of our main project areas. This began with the State of Disappearance project, which has continued into the wider research field of Disappearance Studies.