Editing Enforced disappearance

{{Short description|Unlawful secret disappearance}}
{{Redirect-multi|2|Disappeared|Desaparecidos}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}

[[File:Agrupación de Familiares de Detenidos Desaparecidos de Chile (de Kena Lorenzini).jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|Women of the Association of Families of the Detained-Disappeared demonstrate in front of [[La Moneda Palace]] during the [[Pinochet military regime]].]]
An '''enforced disappearance''' (or '''forced disappearance''') is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a [[State (polity)|state]] followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing the victim outside the protection of the law.<ref name="HenckaertsDoswald-Beck2005">{{cite book|author1=Jean-Marie Henckaerts|author2=Louise Doswald-Beck|author3-link=International Committee of the Red Cross|author3=International Committee of the Red Cross |title=Customary International Humanitarian Law: Rules|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9ny1Dv3VNPYC&pg=PA342|year=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-80899-6|page=342}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=About enforced disappearance |url=https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-disappearances/about-enforced-disappearance#:~:text=An%20enforced%20disappearance%20is%20considered,deprivation%20of%20liberty%20or%20by |publisher=Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances |access-date=22 December 2023}}</ref> Often, forced disappearance implies murder whereby a victim is [[kidnapping|abducted]], may be illegally [[prison|detained]], and is often [[torture]]d during interrogation, ultimately killed, and the body disposed of secretly. The party committing the murder has [[plausible deniability]] as there is no evidence of the victim's death. 

Enforced disappearance was first recognized as a human rights issue in the 1970s as a result of [[Detenidos Desaparecidos|its use by military dictatorships in Latin America]] during the [[Dirty War]]. However, it has occurred all over the world.<ref>{{cite web |title=Enforced Disappearances |url=https://humanrightshistory.umich.edu/problems/disappearances/#:~:text=Enforced%20disappearances%20was%20first%20recognized,custody%20by%20Chilean%20security%20forces. |website=Human Rights Advocacy and the History of Human Rights Standards |access-date=22 December 2023}}</ref>

According to the [[Rome Statute]] of the [[International Criminal Court]], which came into force on July 1, 2002, when committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed at any civilian population,  enforced disappearance qualifies as a [[crime against humanity]], not subject to a [[statute of limitations]], in [[international criminal law]]. On December 20, 2006, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] adopted the [[International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance]].

==Human rights law==
In [[international human rights law]], disappearances at the hands of the state has been labelled as "enforced" or "forced disappearances" since the [[Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action|Vienna Declaration and Program of Action]]. For example, the practice is specifically addressed by the [[Organization of American States|OAS]]'s Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance of Persons. There is also evidence that enforced disappearances occur systematically during armed conflict,<ref>{{cite journal |first=Brian |last=Finucane |ssrn=1427062 |title=Enforced Disappearance as a Crime Under International Law |journal=Yale Journal of International Law |volume=35 |page=171 |date=2010}}</ref> such as Nazi Germany's [[Night and Fog]] program, which constitutes war crimes.

In February 1980, the United Nations established the [[Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances]], "the first United Nations human rights thematic mechanism to be established with a universal mandate." Its main task "is to assist families in determining the fate or whereabouts of their family members who have reportedly disappeared." In August 2014, the working group reported 43,250 unresolved cases of disappearances in 88 different states.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Disappearances/Pages/Annual.aspx|title=OHCHR {{!}} WGEID – Annual reports|website=www.ohchr.org|access-date=17 July 2019|archive-date=17 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717085531/https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/Disappearances/Pages/Annual.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance]], adopted by the UN General Assembly on December 20, 2006, states that the widespread or systematic practice of enforced disappearances constitutes a crime against humanity. It gives victims' families the right to seek reparations and to demand the truth about the disappearance of their loved ones. The convention provides the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance, as well as the right for the relatives of the disappeared person to know the truth and ultimate fate of the disappeared person. 

The convention contains several provisions concerning the prevention, investigation, and sanctioning of this crime. It also contains provisions about the rights of victims and their relatives, and the wrongful removal of children born during their captivity. The convention further sets forth the obligation of international cooperation, both in the suppression of the practice and in dealing with humanitarian aspects related to the crime. 

The convention establishes a Committee on Enforced Disappearances, which will be charged with important and innovative functions of monitoring and protection at an international level. Currently, an international campaign called the [[International Coalition against Enforced Disappearances]] is working towards universal ratification of the convention.

Disappearances work on two levels: not only do they silence opponents and critics who have disappeared, but they also create uncertainty and fear in the wider community, silencing others they think would oppose and criticize. Disappearances entail the violation of many [[fundamental right|fundamental]] human rights declared in the [[United Nations]] [[Universal Declaration of Human Rights|Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR)]]. For the disappeared person, these include the [[Freedom (political)|right to liberty]], the right to personal security and humane treatment (including freedom from torture), the [[right to a fair trial]], to [[counsel|legal counsel]] and to [[equal protection]] under the law, and the [[presumption of innocence|right of presumption of innocence]]. Their families, who often spend the rest of their lives searching for information on the disappeared, are also victims.

== International criminal law ==
{{see|Rome Statute|crimes against humanity}}
According to the Rome Statute establishing the [[International Criminal Court]], enforced disappearances constitute a crime against humanity when committed as a part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population with the knowledge of the attack. The Rome Statute defines enforced disappearances differently than international human rights law:
{{quote|[T]he arrest, detention or abduction of persons by, or with the authorization, support or acquiescence of, a State or a political organization, followed by a refusal to acknowledge that deprivation of freedom or to give information on the fate or whereabouts of those persons, to remove them from the protection of the law for a prolonged period of time|(Article 7.2(i))<ref>{{cite web |title=Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court |url=https://iccforum.com/rome-statute |website=International Criminal Court Forum |access-date=14 February 2024}}</ref>}}

== History of the legal development and international jurisprudence ==

=== General background ===
The crime of forced disappearance begins with the history of the rights stated in the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]], formulated on August 26, 1789, in France by the authorities that emerged from the [[French Revolution]], where it was already stated in Articles 7 and 12:

<blockquote>Art. 7. No person may be charged, detained, or imprisoned except in cases determined by the law and in the manner prescribed therein. Those requesting, facilitating, executing, or executing arbitrary orders must be punished...  
Art. 12. The guarantee of the rights of man and of the citizen needs a public force. This force is therefore instituted for the benefit of all, and not for the particular utility of those who are in charge of it.</blockquote>

Throughout the nineteenth century, along with the technological advancements applied to wars that led to increased mortality among combatants and damage to civilian populations, movements for humanitarian awareness in Western societies resulted in the founding of the first humanitarian organizations known as the [[Red Cross]] in 1859, and the first international typification of abuses and crimes<ref>United Nations Commission on Human Rights, E / CN.4 / 2002/71, 8 January 2002</ref> in the form of the 1864 Geneva Convention. In 1946, after the [[Second World War Hangar No. 7|Second World War]], the [[Nuremberg trials]] brought to public attention to the ''[[Nacht und Nebel]]'' decree, one of the most prominent antecedents of the crime of enforced disappearance. The trials included the testimony of 20 of those persons considered a threat to the security of [[Nazi Germany]] and whom the regime detained and condemned to death in the occupied territories of Europe. However, the executions were not carried out immediately; at one time, the people were deported to Germany and imprisoned at locations such as the [[Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp]], where they ended up disappearing and no information about their whereabouts and fate was given as per point III of the decree:<blockquote>III. …In case German or foreign authorities inquire about such prisoners, they are to be told that they were arrested, but that the proceedings do not allow any further information.<ref>Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality, Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, 8 vols. and 2 suppl. vols.VII, 873–874 (Doc. No. L-90) Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1946–1948.</ref></blockquote>

German Field Marshal [[Wilhelm Keitel]] was condemned in connection with his role in the application of the "NN decree" by Adolf Hitler, although, as it had not been accepted at the time that enforced disappearances were crimes against humanity, the International Criminal Tribunal in Nuremberg found him guilty of war crimes.<ref>E/CN.4/2002/71-page 37
</ref>

Since 1974, the [[Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]] and the [[United Nations Commission on Human Rights]] have been the first international human rights bodies to react to the phenomenon of disappearances, following complaints made in connection with the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|Chilean military coup of September 11]], 1973.<ref>Annual Report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, 1974 OEA / Ser.L / V / II.34, Doc.31, Rev.1, of 30 December 1974</ref> The report of the Working Group to Investigate the Situation of Human Rights in that country, which was submitted to the United Nations Commission on February 4, 1976, illustrated such a case for the first time, when [[:es:Alfonso Chanfreau|Alfonso Chanfreau]], of French origin, was arrested in July 1974 at his home in Santiago de Chile.

Earlier, in February 1975, the UN Commission on Human Rights had used the terms "persons unaccounted for" or "persons whose disappearance was not justified," in a resolution that dealt with the disappearances in Cyprus as a result of the armed conflict that resulted in the division of the island,<ref>Resolution 4 (XXXI) of the Commission on Human Rights of 13 February 1975</ref> as part of the two General Assembly resolutions adopted in December 1975 with respect to Cyprus and Chile.<ref>General Assembly resolution 3450 (XXX) of 9 December 1975. General Assembly resolution 3448 (XXX) of 9 December 1975.</ref>

=== 1977 and 1979 resolutions ===
In 1977, the [[General Assembly of the United Nations]] again discussed disappearances in its resolution 32/118.<ref>"the Assembly expresses&nbsp;... its special concern and indignation at the incessant disappearance of persons who, according to available evidence, can be attributed to political reasons and to the refusal of the Chilean authorities to accept their responsibility for a large number of Persons under such conditions or to explain it, or even to conduct an adequate investigation of the cases that have been brought to their attention." General Assembly resolution 32/118 of 16 December 1977, para. 2.</ref> By then, the Nobel Prize winner [[Adolfo Pérez Esquivel]] had made an international appeal that, with the support of the French government,<ref>Eduardo Febbro, [http://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/subnotas/68730-22331-2006-06-20.html ''Una iniciativa de Argentina y de Francia con historia accidentada''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180708220744/https://www.pagina12.com.ar/diario/elpais/subnotas/68730-22331-2006-06-20.html |date=8 July 2018 }}. ''[[El País]]'', 20 June 2006</ref> obtained the response of the General Assembly in the form of resolution 33/173 of 20 December 1978, which specifically referred to "missing persons" and requested the Commission on Human Rights to make appropriate recommendations.

On 6 March 1979, the Commission authorized the appointment as experts of Dr. [[Felix Ermacora]] and Waleed M. Sadi, who later resigned due to political pressure,<ref>E/CN.4/2002/71-page 10</ref> to study the question of the fate of disappearances in [[Chile]], issuing a report to the General Assembly on 21 November 1979. Felix Ermacora's report became a reference point on the legal issue of crime by including a series of conclusions and recommendations which were later collected by international organizations and bodies.<ref>A / 34/583 / Add.1 21 November 1979</ref>

Meanwhile, during the same year, the General Assembly of the [[Organization of American States]] adopted a resolution on Chile on 31 October, in which it declared that the practice of disappearances was "an affront to the conscience of the hemisphere",<ref>OEA AG/Rev.443 (IX-0/79), para. 3</ref> after having sent in September a mission of the Inter-American Commission to [[Argentina]], which confirmed the systematic practice of enforced disappearances by successive military juntas. Despite the exhortations of non-governmental organizations and family organizations of the victims, in the same resolution of 31 October 1979, the General Assembly of the OAS issued a statement, after receiving pressure from the Argentine government, in which only the states in which persons had disappeared were urged to refrain from enacting or enforcing laws that might hinder the investigation of such disappearances.<ref>OEA, AG/Res. 443 (IX-0/79), para. 5</ref>

Shortly after the report by Félix Ermacora, the [[UN Commission on Human Rights]] considered one of the proposals made and decided on 29 February 1980 to set up the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, the first of the so-called thematic mechanisms of the commission and the most important body of the United Nations that has since been dealing with the problem of disappearances in cases that can be attributed to governments, as well as issuing recommendations to the commission and governments on the improvement of the protection afforded to miss persons and their families and to prevent cases of enforced disappearance. Since then, different causes began to be developed in various international legal bodies, whose sentences served to establish a specific jurisprudence on enforced disappearance.

=== 1983 OAS resolution and first convictions ===
The [[United Nations Human Rights Committee]], established in 1977 in accordance with article 28 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to monitor compliance by states parties with their obligations, issued in March 1982 and July 1983, two sentences condemning the State of [[Uruguay]] for the cases of Eduardo Bleier,<ref>Bleier v. Uruguay, communication Nº 30/1978</ref> a former member of the Communist Party of Uruguay, residing in Hungary and Israel, disappeared after his arrest in 1975 in [[Montevideo]], and Elena Quinteros Almeida, missing since her arrest at the Venezuelan Embassy in Montevideo in June 1976, in an incident that led to the suspension of diplomatic relations between the two countries. In its judgments, the Committee relied on a number of articles of the International Covenant, in particular, those relating to "the right to liberty and personal security", "the right of detainees to be treated humanely and with respect to the inherent dignity of the human being" and "the right of every human being to the recognition of his juridical personality", while in the case of Quinteros, it was solved for the first time in favor of the relatives considered equally victims.

In 1983, the [[Organization of American States]] (OAS) declared by its resolution 666 XIII-0/83 that any enforced disappearance should be described as a crime against humanity. A few years later, in 1988 and 1989, the [[Inter-American Court of Human Rights]] promulgated the first convictions declaring the State of Honduras guilty of violating its duty to respect and guarantee the rights to life, liberty, and personal integrity of the disappeared [[Velásquez-Rodríguez v. Honduras|Angel Manfredo Velásquez Rodríguez]]. Rodríguez was a Honduran student kidnapped in September 1981 in [[Tegucigalpa]] by heavily armed civilians connected with the Honduran Armed Forces and Saúl Godínez Cruz.<ref>Molina Theissen: Court I.D.H., Case of Velásquez Rodríguez, Judgment of 29 July 1988. Series C No. 4; And, Court I.D.H., Godínez Cruz Case, Judgment of 20 January 1989. Series C No. 5.</ref> Since the express definition of the crime of enforced disappearance had not yet been defined, the Court had to rely on different articles of the [[American Convention on Human Rights]] of 1969. Other rulings issued by the Inter-American Court condemned [[Colombian conflict|Colombia]],<ref>Case of Caballero-Delgado and Santana v. Colombia, complaint No. 10319/1989, judgment of 8 December 1995</ref> [[Guatemala]] (for several cases including the call of the "street children"),<ref>Blake v. Guatemala, complaint No. 11219/1993, judgment of 24 January 1998. Villigran Morales y Alcase v. Guatemala, complaint No. 11383/1994, judgment of 19 November 1999. Bámaca Velásquez v. Guatemala, complaint No. 11129/1993, judgment of 25 November 2000.</ref> [[Peru]],<ref>Durán and Ugarte v. Peru, Complaints Num. 10009 and 10078/1987, judgment of 16 August 2000</ref> and [[Bolivia]].<ref>Trujillo Oroza v. Bolivia, judgment of 26 January 2000</ref>

=== Situation in Europe and resolutions of 1993 and 1995 ===
In Europe, the [[European Court of Human Rights]], established in 1959, in accordance with article 38 of the [[European Convention on Human Rights|European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights]] and Fundamental Freedoms of 1950, became a single permanent and binding court for all the Member States of the Council of Europe. Although the European Convention does not contain any express prohibition of the practice of enforced disappearance, the Court dealt with several cases of disappearance in 1993 in the context of the conflict between the Turkish security forces and members or supporters of the [[Kurdistan Workers' Party|Kurdish Workers Party (PKK)]] from the Kurdish region to the southeast of Turkey.<ref>E / CN.4 / 2002/71 pag. 20–23</ref>

Another body providing the basis for the legal definition of the crime of enforced disappearance was the Human Rights Chamber for [[Bosnia and Herzegovina]], a human rights tribunal established under Annex 6 of the [[Dayton Peace Agreement]] of 14 December 1995 which, although it was declared incompetent by ratione temporis to deal with the majority of the 20,000 cases reported, it issued a number of sentences against the Serbian Republic of Bosnia<ref>Palic v. Republika Srpska, Case No. CH / 99/3196, decision on admissibility and merits, 11 January 2001</ref> and the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina,<ref>Unkovic v. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Case No. CH / 99/2150, decision on admissibility and merits of 9 November 2001.</ref> which compensated several families of disappeared persons.

=== Towards the 1992 International Convention ===
In parallel with the resolutions of the international organizations, several non-governmental organizations drafted projects for an international convention. In 1981, the ''Institute des droits de l'homme du Barreau de Paris'' (Institute of Human Rights of the Paris Law School) organized a high-level symposium to promote an international convention on disappearances, followed by several draft declarations and conventions proposed by the Argentine League for Human Rights, FEDEFAM at the annual congress of [[Peru]] in 1982 or the ''Colectivo de Abogados José Alvear Restrepo'' from Bogotá in 1988.

In that same year, the French expert in the then [[Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights|Sub-commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities]], Louis Joinet, prepared the draft text to be adopted in 1992 by the General Assembly with the title Declaration on the Protection of All Persons Against enforced disappearances. The definition presented was based on the one traditionally used by the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Although the Declaration included as the primary obligation of States to enact specific criminal legislation, unlike the Convention against Torture, the principle of universal jurisdiction was not established nor was it agreed that the provisions of the Declaration and the recommendations of the Working Group were legally binding so that only a few states took concrete steps to comply with them.<ref>Colombia, Guatemala, Paraguay, Perú y Venezuela. E/CN.4/2002/71, page 28</ref>

The United Nations Declaration, despite its shortcomings, served to awaken the regional project for the American continent commissioned by the OAS General Assembly in 1987, which, although drafted by the [[Inter-American Commission on Human Rights]] in 1988, was subjected to lengthy discussions and modifications that resulted in their stagnation. In June 1994, the OAS General Assembly finally approved the Inter-American Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons, which would be the first legally binding instrument on the subject, and entered into force on 28 March 1996,<ref>E/CN.4/2002/71-page 28</ref> after its ratification by eight countries: Argentina, Panama, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Venezuela, Bolivia and Guatemala.

In view of the meager success of the United Nations Declaration, a non-binding instrument that could only marginally influence the practice of enforced disappearances, a number of non-governmental organizations and several experts proposed strengthening protection against disappearances, adopting a convention within the framework of the United Nations. This was followed by the deliberations of the 1981 Paris Colloquium submitted by Louis Joinet in the form of a draft subcommittee in August 1988. Several governments, international organizations and non-governmental organizations responded to the invitation of Secretary-General [[Kofi Annan]] to provide comments and observations to the project.<ref>United Nations, E/CN.4/2001/69, 21 December 2000.</ref>

=== The 2006 International Convention ===
On 20 December 2006, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the text of the International Convention on the Forced Disappearance of Persons after more than 25 years of development and was signed in Paris on 6 February 2007<ref>''Le Monde'' 6 February 2007, ''[http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3220,36-864092,0.html?xtor=RSS-3210 Droits de l'homme : un traité international sur les disparitions forcées] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070208173719/http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3220,36-864092,0.html?xtor=RSS-3210|date=8 February 2007}}''</ref> at a ceremony to which representatives of the 53 first signatory countries attended and in which 20 of them immediately ratified it. On 19 April 2007, the Commission on Human Rights updated the list of countries that ratified the convention, which included 59 nations.

== Report of the UN (1980–2009) ==
Since the establishment of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (CHR) in 1980, the crime of enforced disappearance has proved to be a global problem, affecting many countries on five continents. It is the subject of a special follow-up by the HRC which regularly publishes reports on its complaint and situation, as well as the response and action of the governments concerned.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ohchr.org/SP/Pages/Home.aspx|title=ACNUDH {{!}} Inicio|website=ohchr.org|language=es-ES|access-date=16 May 2017|archive-date=17 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517102239/http://www.ohchr.org/SP/pages/home.aspx|url-status=live}}</ref>

The report of the 2009 Working Group recorded a total of 53,232 cases transmitted by the Working Group to Governments since their inception in 1980 and affecting 82 states. The number of cases that are still under study due to lack of clarification, closed or discontinuous cases amounts to 42,600. Since 2004 the Working Group had clarified 1,776 cases. In the previous report of 2007, the number of cases had been 51,531 and affected 79 countries.<ref>{{cite web |title=Implementation of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006 entitled "Human Rights Council" |date=27 June 2006 |url=https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/577713?ln=en |publisher=United Nations Digital Library |access-date=7 March 2023 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307132502/https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/577713?ln=en |url-status=live }}</ref> Many of the countries in the cases are affected internally by violent conflicts, while in other countries the practice of repressive policies towards political opponents is denounced. In other countries, generally in the western and European hemispheres, there are still historical cases that remain unresolved and constitute permanent crimes.

In the official UN report of 2009, of the 82 countries where the cases of missing persons were identified, the largest number (more than 1000) transmitted were:<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-31.pdf|title=A/HRC/13/31. Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances. Annex II, page 145.|last=HR|first=Council|date=2009|access-date=24 August 2022|archive-date=19 August 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210819035609/https://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A-HRC-13-31.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Iraq]] (16,544), [[Sri Lanka]] (12,226), [[Argentina]] (3,449), [[Guatemala]] (3,155), [[Peru]] (3,009), [[Algeria]] (2,939), [[El Salvador]] (2,661) and [[Colombia]] (1,235). Other countries with numerous cases under denunciation (between 1000 and 100) are: [[Chile]] (907), [[China]] (116), [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo]] (114), [[Ethiopia]] (119), [[Philippines]] (780), [[Honduras]] (207), [[India]] (430), [[Indonesia]] (165), [[Iran]] (532), [[Lebanon]] (320), [[Morocco]] (268), [[Mexico]] (392), [[Nepal]] (672), [[Nicaragua]] (234), [[Russian Federation]] (478), [[Sudan]], [[Yemen]] (155) and [[East Timor]] (504).

==Examples==
===Algeria===
During the [[Algerian Civil War]], which began in 1992 as [[Jihadism|militant Islamist guerrillas]] attacked the military government that had annulled an [[Islamic Salvation Front]] victory, thousands of people were forcibly disappeared. Disappearances continued up to the late 1990s,<ref>{{cite web |title=The Legacy of the Algerian Civil War: Forced Disappearances and the Cost of Amnesty |url=https://rosaluxna.org/publications/the-legacy-of-the-algerian-civil-war-forced-disappearances-and-the-cost-of-amnesty/ |website=Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung |access-date=23 February 2024}}</ref> but thereafter dropped off sharply with the decline in violence in 1997. Some of the disappeared were kidnapped or killed by the guerrillas but others are presumed to have been taken by [[Department of Intelligence and Security (DRS)|state security forces]] under [[Mohamed Mediène]]. This latter group has become the most controversial. Their exact numbers remain disputed, but the government has acknowledged a figure of just over 6,000 disappeared, now presumed dead.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Landers |first=Neil Grant |date=2013 |title=Representing the Algerian Civil War: Literature, History, and the State |type=PhD dissertation |publisher=University of California, Berkeley |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vv8w9qg |access-date=6 March 2023 |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306142851/https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6vv8w9qg |url-status=live }}</ref> The war claimed a total toll of 150,000–200,000 lives.

In 2005 [[Charter for Peace and National Reconciliation|a controversial amnesty law]] was approved in a referendum. It granted financial compensation to families of the "disappeared", but also effectively ended the police investigations into the crimes.<ref>{{cite web |date=13 April 2005 |title=Algeria: Amnesty Law Risks Legalizing Impunity for Crimes Against Humanity (Human Rights Watch, 14-4-2005) |url=http://hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/14/algeri10485.htm |access-date=30 December 2010 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |archive-date=9 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109064549/https://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2005/04/14/algeri10485.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Argentina===
{{Main|Dirty War|Operation Condor}}
[[File:Bandera de los Desaparecidos - Día de la Memoria.jpg|thumb|Flag with images of those who disappeared during a demonstration in [[Buenos Aires]] to commemorate the 35th anniversary of the [[1976 Argentine coup d'état|1976 coup]] in Argentina]]
During [[Argentina]]'s [[Dirty War]] and [[Operation Condor]], many alleged political [[dissident]]s were abducted or illegally detained and kept in clandestine [[detention centers in the Dirty War|detention centers]] such as [[Navy Petty-Officers School]] or "ESMA", where they were questioned, tortured, and almost always killed. There were about 500 clandestine [[detention camp]]s, including those of Garaje Azopardo and Orletti. These places of torture, located mostly in [[Buenos Aires]], contributed up to 30,000 desaparecidos, or disappeared persons, to the overall count in the Dirty War. The victims would be shipped to places like a garage or [[basement]] and tortured for multiple days.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Centros Clandestinos de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires|last = Goyochea|first = Agueda|publisher = Instituto Espacio para la Memoria|year = 2007|location = Buenos Aires, Argentina}}</ref> Many of the disappeared were people who were considered to be a political or ideological threat to the [[National Reorganization Process|military junta]].<ref name="Robben">{{cite journal |last=Robben |first=Antonius C. G. M. |title=Anthropology at War?: What Argentina's Dirty War Can Teach Us |journal=Anthropology News |date=September 2005 |issn=1541-6151 |volume=46 |issue=6 |page=6 |doi=10.1525/an.2005.46.6.5}}</ref>

The [[Argentine military]] justified torture to obtain intelligence and saw the disappearances as a way to curb political dissidence.<ref name="Robben"/> Abducted pregnant women were kept captive until they gave birth, then often killed. It is estimated that 500 babies born in this way were given for informal adoption to families with close ties to the military.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Gandsman |first=Ari |title='A Prick of a Needle Can Do No Harm': Compulsory Extraction of Blood in the Search for the Children of Argentina's Disappeared |journal=The Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Anthropology |date=16 April 2009 |volume=14 |series=1 |pages=162–184 |doi=10.1111/j.1935-4940.2009.01043.x }}</ref>

Eventually, many of the captives were heavily drugged and loaded onto aircraft, from which they were thrown alive while in flight over the [[Atlantic Ocean]] in "[[death flights]]" (''vuelos de la muerte'') to leave no trace of their death.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-13-mn-42225-story.html |title=Death Flight Tale Rekindles Memories of 'Dirty War': Argentina: Ex-officer describes throwing leftists out of planes into sea. Thousands believed victims of this policy. |access-date=17 April 2013 |date=13 March 2013 |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |last=Long |first=William R |archive-date=19 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119220940/https://articles.latimes.com/1995-03-13/news/mn-42225_1_dirty-war |url-status=live }}</ref> Without any bodies, the government could deny any knowledge of their whereabouts and accusations that they had been killed. The forced disappearances were the military junta's attempt to silence the opposition and break the determination of the guerrillas.<ref name="Robben"/> Missing people who are presumed to have been murdered in this and other ways are today referred to as "the disappeared" (''los desaparecidos'').<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21884147 |title=Painful search for Argentina's disappeared |access-date=13 April 2013 |date=23 March 2013 |publisher=[[BBC Mundo]] |last=Hernandez |first=Vladimir |archive-date=9 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109064546/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-21884147 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Activist groups [[Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo]] and [[Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo]] were formed in 1977 by mothers and grandmothers of the "disappeared" victims of the dictatorship to find the children born in captivity during the Dirty War,<ref>{{cite web |title=Argentina's Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo awarded UNESCO peace prize |url=https://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37683 |publisher=UN News Centre |date=4 March 2011 |access-date=9 December 2013 |archive-date=12 July 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150712224203/http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=37683 |url-status=live }}</ref> and later to determine the culprits of crimes against humanity and promote their trial and sentencing. Some 500 children are estimated to have been illegally given for adoption; 120 cases had been confirmed by DNA tests {{As of|2016|lc=y}}.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Goñi |first=Uki |date=2016-07-22 |title=How an Argentinian man learned his 'father' may have killed his real parents |language=en-GB |work=[[The Guardian]] |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/22/argentinian-stolen-baby-guillermo-perez-roisinblit |access-date=2023-03-06 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=20 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210420100714/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jul/22/argentinian-stolen-baby-guillermo-perez-roisinblit |url-status=live }}</ref>

The term ''desaparecidos'' was used by ''de facto'' President General [[Jorge Rafael Videla]], who said in a press conference "They are just that… ''desaparecidos''. They are not alive, neither are they dead. They are just missing".<ref>{{Cite news |author=Ignacio de los Reyes |date=17 May 2013 |title=Death of Argentina's Videla evokes painful memories |website=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22578356 |access-date=24 May 2021 |archive-date=2 October 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211002174726/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22578356 |url-status=live }}</ref> It is thought that between 1976 and 1983 in Argentina, up to 30,000 people (8,960 named cases, according to the official report by the [[CONADEP]])<ref>{{citation |mode=cs1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20031002040053/http://nuncamas.org/index2.htm |url-status=dead |title=Nunca Más (Never Again): Report of CONADEP (National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons) |chapter=Part VI: Recommendations and Conclusions: Conclusions |publisher=National Commission on the Disappeared ([[CONADEP]]) |date=September 1984 |access-date=13 January 2011 |chapter-url=http://nuncamas.org/english/library/nevagain/nevagain_283.htm |url=http://nuncamas.org/index2.htm |archive-date=2 October 2003}}</ref> were killed and in many cases disappeared. In an originally [[Classified information|classified]] cable first published by John Dinges in 2004, the Argentine 601st Intelligence Battalion, which started counting victims in 1975, in mid-1978 estimated that 22,000 persons had been killed or "disappeared".<ref>{{Cite book |first=Luis Filipe |last=Alemparte Diaz |author-link=Enrique Arancibia Clavel |section=Page A-8 |section-url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/19780715%20%5BReport%20on%20Argentina%27s%20dissappeared%5D%20A0000514c.pdf |title=Argentine Military Intelligence estimate on the number of disappeared |date=July 1978 |url=http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/full%20%5BReport%20on%20Argentina%20disappeared%5D.pdf |location=Washington, D.C. |publisher=[[National Security Archive]] |language=es |access-date=9 June 2014 |archive-date=17 June 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140617062414/http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB185/full%20&#91;Report%20on%20Argentina%20disappeared&#93;.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Bangladesh===
{{Main|Enforced disappearance in Bangladesh}}
Since 2010, under the [[Awami League]] regime, at least 500 people – most of whom are opposition leaders and activists – have been declared disappeared in [[Bangladesh]] by the [[Law enforcement agency|state security forces]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://1dgy051vgyxh41o8cj16kk7s19f2.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Statement_25.05.15_Eng.pdf |title=International Week of the Disappeared |date=25 May 2015 |work=Statement on the International Week of the Disappeared |publisher=Odhikar |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304225723/http://1dgy051vgyxh41o8cj16kk7s19f2.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Statement_25.05.15_Eng.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="AJ20141020">{{cite web |author=David Bergman |date=20 October 2014 |title='Forced disappearances' surge in Bangladesh |url=http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/disappearances-surge-bangladesh-20141019124512338962.html |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |publisher= |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-date=1 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801070924/https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/10/disappearances-surge-bangladesh-20141019124512338962.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> According to the report of a domestic human rights organization, 82 people have disappeared from January to September 2014.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.askbd.org/ask/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Forced-Disappearances-Oct-2014.pdf |title=ASK Documentation: Forced Disappearances: January to September 2014 |date=13 October 2014 |website=Ain o Salish Kendra |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-date=16 January 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150116011325/http://www.askbd.org/ask/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Forced-Disappearances-Oct-2014.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> After the disappearances, at least 39 of the victims were found dead while others remained missing.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Hussain |first=Maaz |date=2016-11-01 |title=Enforced Disappearances Rise in Bangladesh |newspaper=[[Voice of America]] |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/enforced-disappearances-rise-in-bangladesh/3574161.html |access-date=11 December 2016 |archive-date=8 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190208141923/https://www.voanews.com/a/enforced-disappearances-rise-in-bangladesh/3574161.html |url-status=live }}</ref> On 25 June 2010, an opposition leader Chowdhury Alam was arrested by the state police and remained missing since then.<ref>{{cite news |last=Unb |first=Dhaka |date=26 June 2010 |title=DCC councillor Chowdhury Alam arrested |newspaper=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]] |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=144236 |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-date=7 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107183807/http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=144236 |url-status=live }}</ref> His abduction was later denied by the law enforcing agencies.<ref>{{cite news |last=Sarkar |first=Kailash |date=13 July 2010 |title=How Alam was abducted: Driver's account |newspaper=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]] |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=146494 |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208205215/http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=146494 |url-status=live }}</ref> On 17 April 2012, another prominent leader, [[Ilyas Ali]], of the main opposition parties [[Bangladesh Nationalist Party]] disappeared by unknown armed personnel. The incident received much media coverage. Before the controversial [[2014 Bangladeshi general election|national election of 2014]], at least 19 opposition men were picked up by security forces.<ref name="NA-20151205">{{cite news|title=ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCE: Families call for return of 19 youths|url=http://newagebd.net/181606/enforced-disappearance-families-call-for-return-of-19-youths/|newspaper=The New Age|date=5 December 2015|access-date=8 December 2015|archive-date=16 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180716012439/http://www.newagebd.net/181606/enforced-disappearance-families-call-for-return-of-19-youths|url-status=live}}</ref> The incidents of enforced disappearances were condemned by both domestic and international human rights organizations. Despite the demands for the government initiatives to probe such disappearances, investigations into such cases were absent.<ref name="NA-20151205"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/17/bangladesh-investigate-case-enforced-disappearance |title=Bangladesh: Investigate Case of Enforced Disappearance |date=17 March 2015 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |location=New York |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-date=28 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221128083423/https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/17/bangladesh-investigate-case-enforced-disappearance |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Editorial: The disappearance of Chowdhury Alam |url=http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/print_news.php?nid=146614 |newspaper=[[The Daily Star (Bangladesh)|The Daily Star]] |date=14 July 2010 |access-date=8 December 2015 |archive-date=8 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208203153/http://archive.thedailystar.net/newDesign/print_news.php?nid=146614 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Belarus===
{{Main article|Enforced disappearances in Belarus}}
[[File:Zniknąć 03 - Czarownik ciągnie za uszy.jpg|thumb|Demonstration in [[Warsaw]], reminding about the disappearances of oppositionals in Belarus]]
In 1999 opposition leaders [[Yury Zacharanka]] and [[Viktar Hanchar]], as well as his business associate Anatol Krasouski, disappeared. Hanchar and Krasouski disappeared the same day of a broadcast on state television in which President [[Alexander Lukashenko]] ordered the chiefs of his security services to crack down on "opposition scum". Although the [[State Security Committee of the Republic of Belarus]] (KGB) had had them under constant surveillance, the official investigation announced that the case could not be solved. The investigation of the disappearance of journalist [[Dzmitry Zavadski]] in 2000 has also yielded no results. Copies of a report by the [[Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe]], which linked senior Belarusian officials to the cases of disappearances, were confiscated.<ref>{{cite news |title=16 Years of Silence: Enforced Disappearances in Belarus Must Be Investigated |url=http://blog.amnestyusa.org/europe/16-years-of-silence-enforced-disappearances-in-belarus-must-be-investigated/ |newspaper=[[Amnesty International]] |date=18 September 2015 |access-date=21 September 2017 |archive-date=21 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170921193101/http://blog.amnestyusa.org/europe/16-years-of-silence-enforced-disappearances-in-belarus-must-be-investigated/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In December 2019, [[Deutsche Welle]] published a documentary film in which Yury Garavski, a former member of a special unit of the [[Ministry of Internal Affairs (Belarus)|Belarusian Ministry of Internal Affairs]], confirmed that it was his unit which had arrested, taken away, and murdered Zecharanka and that they later did the same with [[Viktar Hanchar]] and Anatol Krassouski.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Trippe |first1=Christian F. |last2=Sotnik |first2=Ekaterina |date=16 December 2019 |title=Belarus: How death squads targeted opposition politicians |url=https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204 |website=[[Deutsche Welle]] |access-date=13 February 2020 |archive-date=18 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201118232619/https://www.dw.com/en/belarus-how-death-squads-targeted-opposition-politicians/a-51685204 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Chile===
{{main|Enforced disappearances in Chile}}
{{Further|Operation Condor|Indictment and arrest of Augusto Pinochet}}Almost immediately after the Chilean military's [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|seizure of power]] on 11 September 1973, the [[military junta]] led by the then commander-in-chief [[Augusto Pinochet]] banned all the leftist parties that had constituted the democratically elected president [[Salvador Allende]]'s UP coalition.<ref name=Stern>{{Cite book|last=Stern|first=Steve J.|title=Remembering Pinochet's Chile|publisher=Duke University Press|pages=32, 90, 101, 180–81|isbn=978-0-8223-3354-8|date=8 September 2004}}, Retrieved 24 October 2006 through Google Books.</ref> All other parties were placed in "indefinite recess", and later banned outright. The regime's violence was directed not only against dissidents, but also against their families and other civilians.<ref name="Stern"/>

The [[Rettig Report]] concluded 2,279 persons who disappeared during the military dictatorship were killed for political reasons or as a result of political violence, and approximately 31,947 were tortured according to the later [[Valech Report]], while 1,312 were exiled. The latter were chased all over the world by the [[intelligence agencies]]. In [[Latin America]], this was made under the auspices of [[Operation Condor]], a combined operation between the intelligence agencies of various South American countries, assisted by a United States [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) communication base in [[Panama]]. [[Pinochet]] justified these operations as being necessary in order to save the country from [[communism]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gallardo |first=Eduardo |date=2006-12-11 |title=Dictator unrepentant to the end |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dictator-unrepentant-to-the-end/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[The Seattle Times]] |language=en-US |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173757/https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/dictator-unrepentant-to-the-end/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some political scientists have ascribed the relative bloodiness of the coup to the stability of the existing [[Democracy|democratic]] system, which required extreme action to overturn. Some of the most famous cases of human rights violations occurred during the early period: in October 1973, at least 70 people were killed throughout the country by the [[Caravan of Death]]. [[Charles Horman]], a journalist from the [[US]], "disappeared", as did [[Víctor Olea Alegría]], a member of the [[Socialist Party of Chile|Socialist Party]], and many others, in 1973.  Mathematician [[Boris Weisfeiler]] is thought to have disappeared near [[Colonia Dignidad]], a German colony founded by [[Nazi]] Christian minister [[Paul Schäfer]] in [[Parral, Chile|Parral]], which was used as a detention center by the [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional|DINA]], the secret police.<ref>{{cite book |first=Peter |last=Kornbluh |chapter=Chapter 1: Finding the Pinochet File: Pursuing Truth, Justice, and Historical Memory Through Declassified U.S. Documents |title=Democracy in Chile |editor1-last=Nagy-Zekmi |editor1-first=Silvia |editor2-last=Leiva |editor2-first=Fernando |year=2003 |publisher=Sussex Academic Press |location=Brighton, Eng. |isbn=978-1-84519-081-1 |oclc=60373757 |page=22 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PmV-AAAAMAAJ&q=Weisfeiler |access-date=9 June 2014 |archive-date=8 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073044/https://books.google.com/books?id=PmV-AAAAMAAJ&q=Weisfeiler |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Parque por la paz Villa Grimaldi.jpg|thumb|Disappeared people in art at Parque por la Paz at [[Villa Grimaldi]] in Santiago de Chile]]
Furthermore, many other important officials of Allende's government were tracked down by the [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional]] (DINA) during [[Operation Condor]]. Thus, General [[Carlos Prats]], Pinochet's predecessor and army commander under Allende, who had resigned rather than support the moves against Allende's government, was assassinated by a [[car bomb]] in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]], in 1974. A year later, the deaths of 119 opponents abroad were claimed as the product of infighting between Marxist factions, the [[Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional|DINA]] setting up a [[Disinformation|disinformation campaign]] to propagate this thesis, [[Operation Colombo]]. The campaign was legitimized and supported by the leading newspaper in Chile, ''[[El Mercurio]]''.

Other prominent victims of [[Operation Condor]] included, among thousands of less famous persons, [[Juan José Torres]], the former [[President of Bolivia]], assassinated in [[Buenos Aires]] on 2 June 1976; [[Carmelo Soria]], a UN diplomat working for the [[CEPAL]], assassinated in July 1976; and [[Orlando Letelier]], a former Chilean [[ambassador]] to the [[United States]] and minister in Allende's cabinet, [[Letelier assassination|assassinated]] after his release from internment and exile in [[Washington D.C.]] by a [[car bomb]] on 21 September 1976. This led to strained relations with the [[US]] and to the extradition of [[Michael Townley]], a US citizen who worked for the DINA and had organized [[Orlando Letelier|Letelier's]] assassination. Other targeted victims, who survived assassination attempts, included [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian-Democrat]] politician [[Bernardo Leighton]], who barely escaped an assassination attempt in [[Rome]] in 1975 by the [[Italians|Italian]] [[neo-fascist]] terrorist [[Stefano delle Chiaie]] (the assassination attempt seriously injured Leighton and his wife, Anita Fresno, leaving her permanently disabled); [[Carlos Altamirano]], the leader of the Chilean Socialist Party, targeted for murder in 1975 by Pinochet; [[Volodia Teitelboim]], writer and member of the [[Communist Party of Chile|Communist Party]]; [[Pascal Allende]], the nephew of [[Salvador Allende]] and president of the [[Revolutionary Left Movement (Chile)|MIR]], who escaped an assassination attempt in [[Costa Rica]] in March 1976; and [[US Congressman]] [[Edward Koch]], who received death threats and was the potential assassination target by DINA and [[Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay|Uruguayan]] intelligence officers for his denunciation of Operation Condor. Furthermore, according to current investigations, [[Eduardo Frei Montalva]], the [[Christian Democratic Party (Chile)|Christian Democrat]] President of Chile from 1964 to 1970, may have been poisoned in 1982 by a toxin produced by DINA biochemist [[Eugenio Berrios]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6289209.stm Ex-Chilean leader 'was murdered'] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070820174929/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6289209.stm |date=20 August 2007 }}, [[BBC]], 23 January 2007</ref> Berríos himself is reputed to having been assassinated by Chilean intelligence in [[Uruguay]], after being spirited away to said country in the early 1990s.

Protests continued, however, during the 1980s, leading to several scandals. In March 1985, the [[Caso Degollados|gruesome murder]] of three [[Communist Party of Chile]] (PCC) members led to the resignation of [[César Mendoza]], head of the Chilean [[gendarmerie]] the [[Carabineros de Chile]] and member of the ''junta'' since its formation. During a 1986 protest against Pinochet, 21-year-old American photographer [[Rodrigo Rojas DeNegri]] and 18-year-old student [[Carmen Gloria Quintana]] were [[Burnt Alive case|burnt alive]], killing Rojas.

In August 1989, Marcelo Barrios Andres, a 21-year-old member of the [[Manuel Rodríguez Patriotic Front]] (FPMR, the armed wing of the PCC, created in 1983, which had attempted to assassinate Pinochet on 7 September 1986), was assassinated by a group of military personnel who were supposed to arrest him on orders of [[Valparaíso]]'s public prosecutor. However, they simply [[summarily executed]] him; this case was included in the Rettig Report.<ref name="Nacion">[http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20050924/pags/20050924155052.html Capítulos desconocidos de los mercenarios chilenos en Honduras camino de Iraq] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110527110256/http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias/site/artic/20050924/pags/20050924155052.html |date=27 May 2011 }}, ''[[La Nación (Chile)|La Nación]]'', 25 September 2005 – URL accessed on 14 February 2007 {{in lang|es}}</ref> Among the killed and disappeared during the military dictatorship were 440 MIR guerrillas.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=efkdTQof5z0C&q=muertos%20del%20MIR%20chile&pg=PA179 |title=Su revolución contra nuestra revolución: izquierdas y derechas en el Chile, Verónica Valdivia Ortiz de Zárate, p. 179, 2006 |publisher=[[LOM Ediciones]] |access-date=10 March 2010 |isbn=978-956-282-853-6 |year=2006 |archive-date=8 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073045/https://books.google.com/books?id=efkdTQof5z0C&q=muertos%20del%20MIR%20chile&pg=PA179 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===China===
{{See also|Extraordinary rendition#China|Kidnapping in China|Lee Ming-che}}
On 17 May 1995, [[Gedhun Choekyi Nyima]], along with his family, was taken into custody by the [[Chinese government]] shortly after being identified as the 11th [[Panchen Lama]] by the 14th (and current) [[Dalai Lama]], [[Tenzin Gyatso]].<ref>{{cite web|title=China in Tibet – Panchen Lama {{!}} Dreams of Tibet|url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tibet/china/panchen.html|website=[[Frontline (American TV program)|Frontline]]|access-date=29 October 2019|archive-date=9 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309054917/https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tibet/china/panchen.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |author=<!--not stated--> |date=28 April 2018 |title=Dalai Lama cites 'reliable source' as saying Panchen Lama alive, speaks well for the Chinese appointed counter |url=http://www.tibetanreview.net/dalai-lama-cites-reliable-source-as-saying-panchen-lama-alive-speaks-well-for-the-chinese-appointed-counter/ |work=[[Tibetan Review]] |access-date=29 October 2019 |archive-date=22 August 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210822125037/http://www.tibetanreview.net/dalai-lama-cites-reliable-source-as-saying-panchen-lama-alive-speaks-well-for-the-chinese-appointed-counter/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Gedhun Choekyi Nyima the XIth Panchen Lama turns 18: Still disappeared |url=http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=70,4013,0,0,1,0 |website=The Buddhist Channel |access-date=29 October 2019 |archive-date=27 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327090857/http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=70,4013,0,0,1,0 |url-status=live }}</ref> In his place, the [[Chinese Communist Party]] (CCP) appointed [[Gyaincain Norbu]] to act as the Panchen Lama, though Norbu is not recognized as the Panchen Lama in Tibet or elsewhere (beyond China).<ref>{{cite news |date=16 May 2005 |title=Tibet's missing spiritual guide |work=[[BBC]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4551425.stm |access-date=29 October 2019 |archive-date=23 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110923100119/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4551425.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Holder of the white lotus : the lives of the Dalai Lama |year=2008 |publisher=Little, Brown |isbn=978-0-316-85988-2 |page=165}}</ref> Nyima has not been seen in public since he was taken into custody, though the Chinese government claims that he is alive and well, but that he "does not wish to be disturbed".<ref>{{cite web |date=6 September 2015 |title=China says Panchen Lama 'living a normal life' 20 years after disappearance |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/06/china-says-panchen-lama-living-a-normal-life-20-years-after-disappearance |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=29 October 2019 |archive-date=13 June 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190613190714/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/06/china-says-panchen-lama-living-a-normal-life-20-years-after-disappearance |url-status=live }}</ref> Enforced disappearances of human rights lawyers and defenders have increased under [[CCP general secretary]] [[Xi Jinping]]'s [[Xi Jinping Administration|rule]] since 2013. New laws grant the police unrestricted power to hold detainees secretly for indefinite periods.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-08-05 |title=President Xi faces growing dissent in China over enforced Covid lockdowns |url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/president-xi-faces-growing-dissent-in-china-over-enforced-covid-lockdowns-101659664010738.html |access-date=2023-07-24 |website=Hindustan Times |language=en |archive-date=24 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230724115026/https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/president-xi-faces-growing-dissent-in-china-over-enforced-covid-lockdowns-101659664010738.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=China: End Enforced Disappearances & Provide Redress to Victims {{!}} Chinese Human Rights Defenders |url=https://www.nchrd.org/2016/08/china-end-enforced-disappearances-provide-redress-to-victims/ |access-date=2023-07-24 |language=en-US |archive-date=24 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230724115027/https://www.nchrd.org/2016/08/china-end-enforced-disappearances-provide-redress-to-victims/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Pils |first=Eva |title='Disappearing' China's human rights lawyers |date=2013-02-28 |work=Comparative Perspectives on Criminal Justice in China |pages=411–438 |url=https://www.elgaronline.com/display/edcoll/9781781955857/9781781955857.00028.xml |access-date=2024-03-25 |publisher=Edward Elgar Publishing |language=en-US |isbn=978-1-78195-586-4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Quindoza |first=Rosa Bella M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qI_aAAAAMAAJ |title=Reclaiming Stolen Lives |date=2008 |publisher=Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances |isbn=978-971-92451-1-7 |language=en |chapter=At the Heart of Tiananmen: Involuntary Disappearance in the People's Republic of China}}</ref>

[[Gao Zhisheng]], a Chinese Christian human rights attorney and dissident known for defending activists and religious minorities, has been subject to enforced disappearance since August 2017.<ref>{{Cite web |last=AsiaNews.it |title=Gao Zhisheng, missing for seven years in China's prison system |url=https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Gao-Zhisheng,-missing-for-seven-years-in-China%E2%80%99s-prison-system-60627.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=www.asianews.it |language=en}}</ref> Previously, in February 2009, Chinese security agents took him into custody, and his whereabouts remained unknown until March 2010, when he resurfaced and confirmed that he had been sentenced and tortured.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Jacobs |first=Andrew |date=2010-03-28 |title=Chinese Activist Surfaces After a Year in Custody |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/29/world/asia/29china.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In April 2010, his family reported him missing again.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2010-04-30 |title=China lawyer Gao 'missing again' |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8654900.stm |access-date=2024-08-02 |language=en-GB}}</ref> More than a year and a half later, in December 2011, CCP  media [[Xinhua]] reported that he had been sentenced to three years in prison.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2012-01-03 |title=China Sends Long-Missing Lawyer Gao Back To Jail {{!}} Fox News |website=[[Fox News]] |url=https://www.foxnews.com/world/china-sends-long-missing-lawyer-gao-back-to-jail/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120103051852/http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/16/china-sends-long-missing-lawyer-gao-back-to-jail/ |url-status=live |archive-date=2012-01-03 |access-date=2024-08-02 }}</ref> After his release in August 2014, he was placed under house arrest<ref>{{Cite web |last=Monitor |first=World Watch |date=2014-08-15 |title=China's Nobel nominee lawyer released after three years |url=https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2014/08/chinas-nobel-nominee-lawyer-released-after-three-years/ |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=World Watch Monitor |language=en-US}}</ref> for three more years until August 13, 2017, when he disappeared again. There has been no information from the Chinese government about his whereabouts.<ref>{{Cite web |last=AsiaNews.it |title=Gao Zhisheng, missing for seven years in China's prison system |url=https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Gao-Zhisheng,-missing-for-seven-years-in-China%E2%80%99s-prison-system-60627.html |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=www.asianews.it |language=en}}</ref> 

====Hong Kong====
{{See also|Causeway Bay Books disappearances}}
Lee Bo (李波) was a [[dual citizen]] of [[Hong Kong]] and the [[United Kingdom]]. On 30 December 2015 evening, Lee disappeared. His wife shortly received a phone call from him (with [[caller ID]] from [[Shenzhen]]) in which he explained in [[Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]] (not [[Cantonese]] in which they would usually converse) he had to assist with some investigation for a while, and he could not be home nor provide more information for a while.

Lee was a co-owner of the Causeway Bay Books and the Might Current publishing house that specialized in selling books concerning the political gossip and other lurid subjects of the [[Chinese Communist Party]] leaders. These books were banned from mainland China but were popular among the tourists visiting Hong Kong. Towards the end of October 2015, four co-owners and managers of the bookstore and publisher, [[Gui Minhai]], Lui Bo (呂波), Cheung Jiping (張志平), and [[Lam Wing-kei]], went missing from [[Thailand]] and mainland China, believed to be detained by the [[Central Case Examination Group]]. Lee had expressed concern for his safety in various interviews after his colleagues disappeared and intentionally left all travel documents at home (confirmed by his wife after his disappearance).

Lee's disappearance drew wide attention. The disappearance of all five men were speculated to be connected to some upcoming news releases that would have embarrassed the Chinese Communist Party. Hong Kong citizens, under [[One country, two systems|one-country two-systems]], are supposedly to be protected by the [[Hong Kong Basic Law|Basic Law]] in that PRC law enforcement cannot operate in the special administrative region (SAR). Lee's disappearance was considered a threat to [[s:Basic Law of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region/Chapter III|Article 27]] and most importantly the many rights, freedom, and protection promised to Hong Kong citizens often denied in [[mainland China]].<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Jenkins |first=Nash |date=2016-01-07 |title=Hong Kong: Missing Booksellers Spark Deep Anxiety |url=https://time.com/4170605/lee-bo-disappearance-bookseller-china-hong-kong/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |access-date=21 May 2016 |archive-date=6 June 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160606012045/http://time.com/4170605/lee-bo-disappearance-bookseller-china-hong-kong/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Liu |first=Juliana |date=10 November 2015 |title=Hong Kong bookstore disappearances shock publishing industry |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34782266 |access-date=8 January 2016 |archive-date=11 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160111075202/http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34782266 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Fan |first=Jiayang |date=2016-01-08 |title=The Case of the Missing Hong Kong Book Publishers |url=https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-case-of-the-missing-hong-kong-book-publishers |access-date=2023-03-06 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |language=en-US |archive-date=9 November 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191109084228/https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-case-of-the-missing-hong-kong-book-publishers |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Colombia===
{{Expand section|date=March 2023}}
In 2009, Colombian prosecutors reported that an estimated 28,000 people have disappeared due to paramilitary and guerrilla groups during the nation's ongoing [[Colombian armed conflict|internal conflict]]. In 2008, the corpses of 300 victims were identified and 600 more during the following year. According to Colombian officials, it will take many years before all the bodies that have been recovered are identified.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.canalrcnmsn.com/node/765 |title=Aterradora cifra de desaparecidos por paramilitares y guerrilla |publisher=canalrcnmsn.com |access-date=30 December 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110708114124/http://www.canalrcnmsn.com/node/765 |archive-date=8 July 2011}}</ref>

=== East Timor ===
{{Main|East Timor genocide|}}
During the [[Indonesian occupation of East Timor]], the [[Indonesian Army]] commonly utilized enforced disappearances to instill fear in the East Timorese population.<ref name="ETAN">{{Cite web |date=2005-12-03 |title=07.2 Unlawful Killings and Enforced Disappearances |url=https://www.etan.org/etanpdf/2006/CAVR/07.2_Unlawful_Killings_and_Enforced_Disappearances.pdf |access-date=2024-11-05 |website=[[East Timor and Indonesia Action Network]]}}</ref> 

Three notable incidents of mass enforced disappearances were on 8 December 1975 in [[Colmera]], [[Dili]], where 13 [[Chinese people in East Timor|Chinese]] workers disappeared after having been last seen in Indonesian custody digging on the beach, and in December 1979 at [[Matebian]] where 48 men disappeared after being falsely accused of being [[Fretilin]] members, from April to September 1999 over 15 people disappeared during the [[Lospalos case]].<ref name="ETAN" />

=== Egypt ===
Enforced disappearance has been employed by the Egyptian authorities under the regime of [[Abdel Fattah el-Sisi]] as a key instrument to terrify, interrogate and torture opponents of El-Sisi under the guise of counter-terrorism efforts.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=Egypt 2017/2018 |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/egypt/report-egypt/ |access-date=31 May 2018 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |language=en |archive-date=9 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221109003117/https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/egypt/report-egypt/ |url-status=live }}</ref> Hundreds of people forcibly disappeared including political activists, protesters, women and children. Around three to four people are seized per day by the heavily armed security forces led by [[National Security Agency (Egypt)|NSA]] officers who usually storm their homes, detain many of them, blindfold and handcuff them for months.{{Until when|date=March 2023}}<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1243682016ENGLISH.PDF|title=EGYPT: 'OFFICIALLY, YOU DO NOT EXIST'|date=12 July 2016 |access-date=31 May 2018|archive-date=20 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020022222/https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/MDE1243682016ENGLISH.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref>

Between 1 August 2016 and mid-August 2017, 378 individuals have been forcibly disappeared. 291 people have been located, while the rest are still forcibly disappeared. Of the 52 children who disappeared in 2017, three were extrajudicially killed.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.belady-ih.org/|title=Belady|website=www.belady-ih.org|language=en-US|access-date=31 May 2018|archive-date=2 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221102200117/https://belady-ih.org/|url-status=live}}</ref>

In 2020, the [[Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms]] (ECRF) released a five-year report on forced disappearances, revealing that the country documented 2,723 such cases since August 2015.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ec-rf.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/output.pdf|title=Continuous violation and justice absent: A report on the phenomenon of the disappearance of the priest in rural Egypt within five years|access-date=29 August 2020|website=Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms|archive-date=9 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109064545/https://www.ec-rf.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/output.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ec-rf.net/?p=3509|title=Continuous violation and absent justice: Forced Disappearance – A five-year report|access-date=8 March 2021|website=Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms|archive-date=9 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230109064558/https://www.ec-rf.net/?p=3509|url-status=live}}</ref>

In March 2021, [[Amnesty International]] condemned Egyptian authorities for the forced disappearance of a husband and wife, Omar Abdelhamid Abu el-Naga and Manar Adel Abu el-Naga, along with their one-year-old child, al-Baraa, after being arrested on 9 March 2019. On 20 February 2021, the wife was questioned about having links to a terrorist group before the Supreme State Security Prosecution (SSSP). She was detained for 15 days pending further investigations at al-Qanater women's prison, while her almost 3-year-old son was handed over to relatives. However, Omar continued to be subjected to enforced disappearance.<ref name=":6">{{Cite web |date=2021-03-04 |title=Amnesty urges Egypt to probe forced disappearance of family |url=https://apnews.com/article/egypt-alexandria-7e51c7c28442c1ff87479d0c9f327701 |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[Associated Press]] |language=en |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173756/https://apnews.com/article/egypt-alexandria-7e51c7c28442c1ff87479d0c9f327701 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=AI-4-March-2021>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/03/egypt-end-and-redress-shocking-crimes-against-toddler-and-family-forcibly-disappeared-for-23-months/|title=Egypt End and redress shocking crimes against toddler and family forcibly disappeared for 23 months|access-date=4 March 2021|website=Amnesty International|date=4 March 2021|archive-date=4 March 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210304120656/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2021/03/egypt-end-and-redress-shocking-crimes-against-toddler-and-family-forcibly-disappeared-for-23-months/|url-status=live}}</ref> Amnesty International urged Egypt to conduct an effective investigation into the disappearance of the family, saying, "Seizing a young mother with her one-year-old baby and confining them in a room for 23 months outside the protection of the law and with no contact with the outside world show that Egyptian authorities' ongoing campaign to stamp out dissent and instill fear has reached a new level of brutality."<ref name=":6" /><ref name=AI-4-March-2021 />

===El Salvador===
According to the [[UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances]], enforced disappearances were systematically carried out in El Salvador both prior to (starting in 1978) and during the [[Salvadoran Civil War]]. Salvadoran [[non-governmental organization]]s estimate that more than 8,000 disappearances occurred, and in the Report of the [[Commission on the Truth for El Salvador]], it is estimated that more than 5,500 persons may have been the victims of enforced disappearance. The Office of the Procurator for the Protection of Human Rights of El Salvador claims that:
{{Blockquote|Disappearances usually took place during operations whose purpose was the detention and later the disappearance or execution of persons identified as or suspected of being government opponents, including civilians who had nothing to do with the conflict, with the apparent aim of generating terror and eliminating members of the population who might potentially become guerrillas.}}

[[Child abduction|Enforced disappearances of children]] occurred, which is thought to have been "part of a deliberate strategy within the violence institutionalized by the State during the period of conflict".<ref>{{Cite report |author=Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances |date=26 October 2007 |title=Mission to El Salvador |publisher=United Nations Human Rights Council |pages=8–9 |docket=A/HRC/7/2/Add.2}}</ref>

===Equatorial Guinea===
According to the UN Human Rights Council Mission to [[Equatorial Guinea]],<ref>[http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A.HRC.13.39.Add.4_En.pdf Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705232519/http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/hrcouncil/docs/13session/A.HRC.13.39.Add.4_En.pdf |date=5 July 2010 }} [[UNHCR]]</ref> agents of the Equatorial Guinean Government have been responsible for abducting [[refugee]]s from other countries in the region and holding them in secret detention.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-04-29 |title=Equatorial Guinea. Illegally detained irregular migrants must be released |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/equatorial-guinea-illegally-detained-irregular-migrants-must-be-released/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |language=en |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173756/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/04/equatorial-guinea-illegally-detained-irregular-migrants-must-be-released/ |url-status=live }}</ref> For example, in January 2010 four men were abducted from [[Benin]] by Equatorial Guinean security forces, held in secret detention, subjected to [[torture]], and executed in August 2010 immediately after being convicted by a military court.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2010-08-23 |title=Execution of four men in Equatorial Guinea condemned |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2010/08/guinea-ecuatorial-ejecuta-cuatro-hombres/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |language=en |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173757/https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2010/08/guinea-ecuatorial-ejecuta-cuatro-hombres/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Germany===
{{Main|Nacht und Nebel}}

During [[World War II]], [[Nazi Germany]] set up secret police forces, including branches of the [[Gestapo]] in occupied countries, to hunt down known or suspected dissidents or partisans. This tactic was given the name ''[[Nacht und Nebel]]'' (''Night and Fog''), to describe those who disappeared after being arrested by Nazi forces without any warning. The Nazis applied this policy against [[German resistance to Nazism|political opponents]] within Germany as well as against the [[Resistance during World War II|resistance]] in [[occupied Europe]]. Most victims were [[summary execution|killed on the spot]], or sent to [[concentration camp]]s, with the full expectation that they would then be killed.

===Guatemala===
{{Main|Guatemalan genocide}}
[[Guatemala]] was one of the first countries where people were disappeared as a generalized practice of terror against a civilian population. Forced disappearances was widely practiced by the United States-backed military government of Guatemala during the 36-year [[Guatemalan Civil War]].<ref name=McAllister>{{cite encyclopedia|last=McAllister|first=Carlota|editor-first1=Greg|editor-last1=Grandin|editor-first2=Gilbert|editor-last2=Joseph|encyclopedia=A Century of Revolution|title=A Headlong Rush into the Future|access-date=14 January 2014|year=2010|publisher=Duke University Press|location=Durham, NC|pages=276–309|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJ7ZBGy0wsIC|isbn=978-0-8223-9285-9|archive-date=8 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073045/https://books.google.com/books?id=YJ7ZBGy0wsIC|url-status=live}}</ref> An estimated 40,000 to 50,000 individuals were disappeared by the [[Guatemalan military]] and security forces between 1954 and 1996. The tactic of disappearance first saw widespread use in Guatemala during the mid-1960s, as government repression became widespread when the military adopted harsher [[counterinsurgency]] measures. The first documented case of forced disappearance by the government in Guatemala occurred in March 1966, when thirty [[Guatemalan Party of Labour]] associates were kidnapped, tortured and killed by the security forces; their bodies were put in sacks and [[Death flights|dumped at sea from helicopters]]. This was one of the first major instances of forced disappearance in Latin American history.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Doyle |first1=Kate |last2=Osorio |first2=Carlos |title=U.S. POLICY IN GUATEMALA, 1966–1996 |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB11/docs/ |work=[[National Security Archive]] |access-date=9 June 2013 |archive-date=9 October 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009173122/http://www2.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB11/docs/ |url-status=live }}</ref> When law students at the [[Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala|University of San Carlos]] used legal measures (such as ''[[habeas corpus]]'' petitions) to require the government to present the detainees at court, some of the students were "disappeared" in turn.<ref>McClintock 1985: 82–83; CIIDH and GAM 1998</ref>

===India===
{{See also|Encounter killings by police|Insurgency in Punjab}}

Ensaaf, a nonprofit organization working to end impunity and achieve justice for mass state crimes in India, with a focus on [[Punjab, India|Punjab]],<ref>[http://www.ensaaf.org/about/ Ensaaf – About Us] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117181133/http://www.ensaaf.org/about/ |date=17 November 2015 }}. Retrieved on 8 November 2015.</ref> released a report in January 2009, in collaboration with the [[Benetech]] [[Human Rights Data Analysis Group]] (HRDAG), claiming "verifiable quantitative" findings on mass disappearances and extrajudicial executions in the Indian state of Punjab.<ref name="ensaaf2009">Ensaaf and the Benetech Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG). [http://www.ensaaf.org/publications/reports/descriptiveanalysis/ Violent Deaths and Enforced Disappearances During the Counterinsurgency in Punjab, India: A Preliminary Quantitative Analysis] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220929114728/https://ensaaf.org/publications/reports/descriptiveanalysis/ |date=29 September 2022 }}. 26 January 2009.</ref> It claims that in conflict-afflicted states like Punjab, [[Indian Armed Forces|Indian security forces]] have perpetrated gross human rights violations with impunity. The report by Ensaaf and HRDAG, "Violent Deaths and Enforced Disappearances During the Counterinsurgency in Punjab, India", presents empirical findings suggesting that the intensification of [[counterinsurgency]] operations in Punjab in the 1980s to 1990s was accompanied by a shift in state violence from targeted lethal human rights violations to systematic enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions, accompanied by mass "illegal [[cremation]]s".<ref name="ensaaf2009" /> Furthermore, there is key evidence suggesting security forces tortured, executed, and disappeared tens of thousands of people in Punjab from 1984 to 1995.<ref name="ensaaf2009" />

In 2011, the [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]] State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) recommended the identification of 2,156 people buried in unmarked graves in north [[Kashmir]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/2156-unidentified-bodies-in-kashmir-graves-to-undergo-dna-profiling/article2459274.ece|title=2,156 unidentified bodies in Kashmir graves to undergo DNA profiling|author=Shujaat Bukhari|work=The Hindu|date=16 September 2011|access-date=21 May 2016|archive-date=8 November 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073049/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/2156-unidentified-bodies-in-Kashmir-graves-to-undergo-DNA-profiling/article13600384.ece|url-status=live}}</ref> The graves were found in dozens of villages on the Indian side of the [[Line of Control]], the border that has divided India and Pakistan since 1972.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/21/kashmir-unmarked-graves-thousands-bodies|title=Kashmir unmarked graves hold thousands of bodies|author=Jason Burke|work=The Guardian|date=21 August 2011|access-date=21 May 2016|archive-date=21 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160721040131/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/aug/21/kashmir-unmarked-graves-thousands-bodies|url-status=live}}</ref> According to a report published by the commission, many of the bodies were likely to be those of civilians who disappeared more than a decade earlier in a brutal [[Insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir|insurgency]]. "There is every probability that these unidentified dead bodies buried in various unmarked graves at 38 places of North Kashmir may contain the dead bodies of enforced disappearances", the report stated.<ref>{{cite web |last=Polgreen |first=Lydia |date=23 August 2011 |title=Mass Graves Hold Thousands, Kashmir Inquiry Finds |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/world/asia/23kashmir.html |access-date=21 May 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-date=2 May 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160502195234/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/23/world/asia/23kashmir.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Indonesia===
{{Expand section|date=March 2023}}
According to historian John Roosa, the first example of forced disappearances being used as a weapon of terror in Asia occurred during the [[Indonesian mass killings of 1965–66]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bevins |first1=Vincent|author-link=Vincent Bevins |title=[[The Jakarta Method|The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World]]|date=2020 |publisher= [[PublicAffairs]]|page=295 |isbn= 978-1541742406}}</ref>

===Iraq===
{{Main|Human rights in Saddam Hussein's Iraq|Human rights in ISIL-controlled territory|Camp Speicher massacre}}
{{Expand section|date=April 2008}}

At least tens of thousands of people disappeared under the regime of [[Saddam Hussein]], many of them during [[Operation Anfal]].

On 15 December 2019, two Iraqi activists and friends – Salman Khairallah Salman and Omar al-Amri – disappeared amidst ongoing protests in [[Baghdad]]. The family and friends of the two fear the disappearance of more people following [[United Nations|United Nations']] warning to security forces and other unnamed militia groups, of carrying out a campaign of kidnapping and 'deliberate killings' in [[Iraq]].<ref>{{cite web |last=Trew |first=Bel |date=14 December 2019 |title=Kidnapping, lynching and deliberate killings: Iraq's protesters live in fear they 'could be next' |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-protests-baghdad-military-un-abduction-death-tollf-a9246336.html |access-date=15 December 2019 |website=[[The Independent]] |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110112509/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iraq-protests-baghdad-military-un-abduction-death-tollf-a9246336.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Iran===
Following the [[Iran student riots in 1999]], more than 70 students disappeared. In addition to an estimated 1,200–1,400 detained, the "whereabouts and condition" of five students named by [[Human Rights Watch]] remain unknown.<ref>{{cite web |date=July 30, 1999 |title=New Arrests And "Disappearances" Of Iranian Students |url=https://www.hrw.org/press/1999/jul/iran730.htm |access-date=30 December 2010 |publisher=[[Human Rights Watch]] |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020235653/http://www.hrw.org/press/1999/jul/iran730.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The United Nations has also reported other disappearances.<ref>{{cite web |date=2004-07-27 |title=UN experts urge Iran to observe human rights norms in case of dead journalist |url=http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-media/markup/msg00171.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110728014817/http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-media/markup/msg00171.html |archive-date=28 July 2011 |access-date=30 December 2010 |publisher=Human Rights Education Associates}}</ref> Many groups, from teacher unions to [[Women's rights in Iran|women's rights]] activists, have been targeted by forced disappearances.<ref>{{cite web |date=28 February 2008 |title=Iran 'targeting' women activists |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7268536.stm |access-date=30 December 2010 |work=[[BBC News]] |archive-date=1 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110201181055/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7268536.stm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=26 January 2002 |title=Clashes at Iran teachers protest |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1783592.stm |access-date=2 May 2010 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020172154/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1783592.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Dissident writers have been the target of disappearances,<ref>{{cite web |date=8 December 1998 |title=WAN protests disappearances in Iran |url=https://ifex.org/wan-protests-disappearances-in-iran/ |access-date=30 December 2010 |publisher=IFEX |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173757/https://ifex.org/wan-protests-disappearances-in-iran/ |url-status=live }}</ref> as have members of religious minorities, such as the [[Baháʼí Faith]] following the [[Iranian Revolution]]. Examples include Muhammad Movahhed and [[Ali Murad Davudi]].

===Mexico===
{{main|Enforced disappearances in Mexico}}
{{See also|2014 Iguala mass kidnapping}}
[[File:Ayotzinapa- visita del mecanismo de seguimiento (36133322213).jpg|thumb|Mexico's disappeared people]]
During Mexico's [[Mexican Dirty War|Dirty War]] in the 1970s, thousands of suspected guerrillas, leftists, and [[human rights defender]]s disappeared, although the exact number is unclear. During the 1970s, around 470 people were disappeared in the municipality of [[Atoyac de Álvarez]] alone.<ref>{{cite web |title=Rosendo Radilla case: new investigations in Atoyac de Álvarez |url=https://pbi-mexico.org/news/2018-01/rosendo-radilla-case-new-investigations-atoyac-de-%C3%A1lvarez |website=PBI Mexico |access-date=2 July 2020 |archive-date=7 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221207023949/https://pbi-mexico.org/news/2018-01/rosendo-radilla-case-new-investigations-atoyac-de-%C3%A1lvarez |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to the National Commission of Human Rights ([http://www.cndh.org.mx/ CNDH]), between 2006 and 2011, 5,397 people have disappeared. Of these, 3,457 are men, 1,885 are women, but there is no information about the other 55.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2011-04-03 |title="Más de 5.000 desaparecidos" desde que México declaró la guerra a los carteles |url=https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2011/04/110402_mexico_desaparecidos_comision_derechos_humanos_fp |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[BBC Mundo]] |language=es |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173757/https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2011/04/110402_mexico_desaparecidos_comision_derechos_humanos_fp |url-status=live }}</ref> Usually, the forced disappearances occur in groups and are of people not related to the [[Mexican Drug War|drug war]] which was started by President [[Felipe Calderón]] in 2006. The main difference from the kidnappings is that usually there is no ransom asked for the disappeared.

Over 73,000 people in Mexico have been reported as disappeared in 2020, according to the [[Secretariat of the Interior|Secretaría de Gobernación of Mexico]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Díaz |first=Arturo Ordaz |date=2020-07-13 |title=México tiene más de 73,000 personas desaparecidas, actualiza Segob |url=https://www.forbes.com.mx/politica-mexico-73000-personas-desaparecidas-segob/ |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=Forbes México |language=es-MX |archive-date=16 September 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916161416/https://www.forbes.com.mx/politica-mexico-73000-personas-desaparecidas-segob/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Morocco / Western Sahara===
{{Main|Human rights in Western Sahara|Years of Lead (Morocco)}}

[[File:Malika oufkir 2006.jpg|thumb|left|150px|Moroccan writer [[Malika Oufkir]], daughter of General [[Mohamed Oufkir]], is a former "disappeared" in Morocco.]]
Several [[Royal Moroccan Armed Forces|Moroccan Army]] personnel suspected of being implicated in the 1970s coups against King [[Hassan II]] were held in secret detention camps such as [[Tazmamart]], where some of them died due to poor conditions or lack of medical treatment. The most famous case of forced disappearance in Morocco is that of political dissident [[Mehdi Ben Barka]], who disappeared in obscure circumstances in [[France]] in 1965.
In February 2007, Morocco signed an international convention protecting people against forced disappearance.<ref>{{cite web |last=Beauchemin |first=Eric |date=2007-07-02 |title=Finally tackling the threat of 'disappearance' – Radio Netherlands Worldwide – English |url=http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/dis070207mc |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828083337/http://www.radionetherlands.nl/currentaffairs/dis070207mc |archive-date=28 August 2007 |access-date=30 December 2010 |website=[[Radio Netherlands Worldwide]] |publisher=}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Accueil |website=Maghreb Arabe Press |url=http://www.map.ma/fr/sections/boite4/la_signature_par_le/view |access-date=7 February 2007}}{{dead link|date=June 2018}}</ref>
In October 2007, Spanish judge [[Baltasar Garzón]] declared the competence of the Spanish jurisdiction in the Spanish-Sahrawi disappearances between 1976 and 1987 in [[Western Sahara]] (mostly controlled by Morocco). There have been charges brought against some Moroccan military heads, some of them currently in power {{As of|2010|lc=on}}, such as the head of Morocco's armed forces, General [[Housni Benslimane]], charged for the detention and disappearance campaign of [[Smara]] in 1976.<ref>{{cite news|title=Genocide investigations into Morocco's Sahara occupation|url=http://www.afrol.com/articles/27110|publisher=[[Afrol News]]|date=31 October 2007|access-date=27 November 2010|archive-date=13 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113194358/http://www.afrol.com/articles/27110|url-status=live}}</ref> Garzón's successor, Judge [[Pablo Ruz]], reopened the case in November 2010.<ref>{{Cite web |last=VÁZQUEZ |first=ÁNGELES |date=2010-11-19 |title=El juez Ruz reactiva la causa por genocidio en el Sáhara |trans-title=Judge Ruz reinstates trial for genocide in the Sahara |url=https://www.publico.es/espana/juez-ruz-reactiva-causa-genocidio.html |website=Publico – España |language=es |access-date=23 May 2021 |archive-date=23 May 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210523153940/https://www.publico.es/espana/juez-ruz-reactiva-causa-genocidio.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Myanmar ===
{{See also|Rohingya genocide|2021–2023 Myanmar protests}}

During the ongoing [[Rohingya genocide]], [[Tatmadaw]] forces have systematically carried out the disappearance and torture of [[Rohingya people]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-08-27 |title=UN body petitioned over enforced disappearance of Rohingya in Rakhine State |url=https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/myanmar/un-body-petitioned-over-enforced-disappearance-of-rohingya-in-rakhine |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=[[International Federation for Human Rights]] |language=en |archive-date=20 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230320191158/https://www.fidh.org/en/region/asia/myanmar/un-body-petitioned-over-enforced-disappearance-of-rohingya-in-rakhine |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":4">{{Cite web |last1=Milko |first1=Victoria |last2=Gelineau |first2=Kristen |date=2021-05-05 |title=Myanmar's military disappearing young men to crush uprising |url=https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-myanmar-technology-e5c0036949f7e7fb8ce1da5884f250a4 |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=[[Associated Press]] |language=en |archive-date=3 December 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221203092845/https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-myanmar-technology-e5c0036949f7e7fb8ce1da5884f250a4 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following the [[2021 Myanmar coup d'état|2021 military coup]] and ongoing opposition movement, thousands of people have been abducted by Myanmar security forces, including politicians, election officials, journalists, activists, and protesters. According to the [[Assistance Association for Political Prisoners]], thousands of people suspected of participation in [[2021–2023 Myanmar protests|anti-coup demonstrations]] have been disappeared through nighttime raids.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021-04-02 |title=Myanmar: Hundreds Forcibly Disappeared |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/02/myanmar-hundreds-forcibly-disappeared |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=[[Human Rights Watch]] |language=en |archive-date=18 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230218235144/https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/04/02/myanmar-hundreds-forcibly-disappeared |url-status=live }}</ref> According to [[UNICEF]], there are over 1,000 cases of children who have been arbitrarily arrested and detained, many without access to lawyers or their families.<ref name=":4" />

===North Korea===
{{Expand section|date=March 2023}}
In [[North Korea]], forced disappearances of nationals are characterized by detention without contact or explanation to the families of the detained. Foreign citizens, many of whom are ethnic Koreans who were living in [[South Korea]] and [[Japan]], have been disappeared after willfully traveling to North Korea or being abducted abroad.<ref name="cbc.ca">{{cite web |date=17 February 2014 |title=UN says North Korea is like a Nazi state: Main findings |url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-says-north-korea-is-like-a-nazi-state-main-findings-1.2540881 |work=[[CBC.ca]] |access-date=21 February 2014 |archive-date=7 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160107183807/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/un-says-north-korea-is-like-a-nazi-state-main-findings-1.2540881 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="nytimes.com">{{cite web |last=Cumming-Bruce |first=Nick |date=18 February 2014 |title=U.N. Panel Says North Korean Leader Could Face Trial |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/world/asia/un-panel-says-north-korean-leader-could-face-trial.html |access-date=21 May 2016 |work=[[The New York Times]] |archive-date=18 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140218065002/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/18/world/asia/un-panel-says-north-korean-leader-could-face-trial.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Northern Ireland and Ireland ===
{{main|Disappeared (Northern Ireland)}}
"The Disappeared" is the name given to eighteen people<ref>{{cite web |url=http://thedisappearedni.co.uk/lisa-dorrian |title=Lisa Dorrian |access-date=3 May 2014 |publisher=The Disappeared of Northern Ireland |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140625185531/http://thedisappearedni.co.uk/lisa-dorrian/ |archive-date=25 June 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://thedisappearedni.co.uk/about |title=About the Disappeared |access-date=3 May 2014 |publisher=The Disappeared of Northern Ireland |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131118022900/http://thedisappearedni.co.uk/about/ |archive-date=18 November 2013}}</ref> abducted and killed by the [[Provisional IRA]], the [[Irish National Liberation Army]], and other [[Irish Republican]] organizations during [[the Troubles]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.iclvr.ie/en/ICLVR/Pages/TheDisappeared|title=The Disappeared|access-date=3 May 2014|publisher=Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains|archive-date=4 May 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140504234918/http://www.iclvr.ie/en/ICLVR/Pages/TheDisappeared|url-status=live}}</ref>

The [[Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains]], established in 1999, is the body responsible for locating the disappeared.<ref>{{cite web |title=Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains: homepage |url=http://www.iclvr.ie/ |access-date=3 May 2014 |archive-date=10 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221110113648/http://secretary@iclvr.ie/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1999, the [[Provisional IRA|IRA]] admitted to killing nine of the disappeared and gave information on the location of these bodies, but only three bodies were recovered on that occasion, one of which had already been exhumed and placed in a coffin.<ref>{{Cite book|title=New Sinn Féin: Irish Republicanism in the Twenty-first Century|last=Maillot|first=Agnes|year=2005|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-32197-6|pages=162–165|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3BsevXk5-08C&pg=PA162|access-date=4 December 2010}}</ref> The best-known case was that of [[Jean McConville]], a Belfast mother of 10, widowed a few months before she disappeared, who the IRA claimed was an informer.<ref name="maillot165">Maillot (2005), p. 165.</ref> The search for her remains was abandoned in 1999,<ref>{{Cite news|title='Disappeared' families put lives on hold|newspaper=BBC News|date=20 July 1999|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/398754.stm|access-date=4 December 2010|archive-date=19 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119035345/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/398754.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> but her body was discovered in 2003, a mile from where the IRA had indicated, by a family out on a walk.<ref name="maillot165" /> Since then seven more victims have been found—one in 2008,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Funeral for Disappeared victim|newspaper=BBC News|date=22 December 2008|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7794980.stm|access-date=4 December 2010|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111005/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/7794980.stm|url-status=live}}</ref> three in 2010,<ref>{{Cite news|title=Funeral for Charlie Armstrong, 'Disappeared' victim|work=BBC News|date=16 September 2010|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11318498|access-date=4 December 2010|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111005/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11318498|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Body found in 'Disappeared' search for Peter Wilson|newspaper=BBC News|date=2 November 2010|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11676972|access-date=4 December 2010|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110110954/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11676972|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Remains were 'Disappeared' Crossmaglen man Gerry Evans|newspaper=BBC News|date=29 November 2010|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11866971|access-date=4 December 2010|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111001/https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11866971|url-status=live}}</ref> one in 2014, two in 2015 and one in 2017. {{as of|2017}}, three have yet to be located.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Ryan |first1=Órla |title=Remains found in France confirmed to be Seamus Ruddy |url=http://www.thejournal.ie/seamus-ruddy-remains-3382879-May2017/ |access-date=6 August 2018 |work=TheJournal.ie |date=10 May 2017 |language=en |archive-date=13 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113065528/https://www.thejournal.ie/seamus-ruddy-remains-3382879-May2017/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

=== Qatar ===
Women's rights activist [[Noof Al Maadeed]] who returned to Qatar in 2021 after voluntarily renouncing her asylum claim in the UK was last seen on the 13th of October 2021, weeks after arrival in Doha. Her last communication with the outside world was in March 2023 through 4 social media posts on Twitter, now deleted. Since then her whereabouts are unknown<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.state.gov/reports/2023-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/qatar/|title=US state department summary of human rights in Qatar|accessdate=8 Jan 2025}}</ref> and the Qatari authorities have not been able to confirm her status, despite pressure from human rights organizations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.gc4hr.org/the-story-of-qatari-womens-rights-defender-noof-al-maadeed/|title=Gulf Centre for Human Rights article on missing Qatari female |date=11 Sep 2023|accessdate=8 Jan 2025|publisher=[[Gulf Centre for Human Rights| GC4HR]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.icsrf-gcc.org/index.php/arab/qatar/2125 | title = Article on the implications of the disappearance for statehood| date= 1 Jul 2024 | accessdate= 8 Jan 2025 | publisher= ICSRF}}</ref>

===Pakistan===
{{main|Enforced disappearances in Pakistan}}
In Pakistan, the systematic practice of enforced disappearance in Pakistan originated in the era of military dictator General [[Pervez Musharraf]]. The extent of forced disappearances increased after the [[US invasion of Afghanistan]] in 2001.Enforced disappearances constitute a significant human rights issue in Pakistan, with the reported alleged cases exceeding 7,000 according to Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances    however about 5000 of these  cases have been resolved.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Shah |first1=Text: Zulfiqar |last2=Rights |first2=Human |last3=Karachi |first3=labour rights expert based in |last4=Pakistan. |title=Enforced disappearances: A chronic human rights violation in Pakistan |url=https://nhrf.no/blog/enforced-disappearances-in-pakistan |access-date=2023-10-07 |website=The Norwegian Human Rights Fund |language=en |archive-date=4 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231104073817/https://nhrf.no/blog/enforced-disappearances-in-pakistan |url-status=live }}</ref> 

=== Palestine ===
In August 2015, four members of [[Hamas]] Armed wing were abducted in [[Sinai Peninsula|Sinai]], [[Egypt]]. They were abducted by unidentified gunmen according to the Egyptian security officials. The abducted men were in a bus carrying fifty of the Palestinians from [[Rafah]], to [[Cairo International Airport|Cairo airport]].

[[Hamas]] confirmed that the four abducted [[Palestinian territories|Palestinians]] were heading to [[Cairo]]. The spokesman of the [[interior ministry]] Iyad al Bazom said "We urge the Egyptian interior ministry to secure the lives of the kidnapped passengers and free them". Until the moment, no group claimed responsibility for the kidnappings.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |first= |date=20 August 2015 |title=Four Palestinian Hamas militants abducted in Egypt's Sinai: sources |language=en-GB |work=[[Reuters]] |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-palestinians-kidnapping-idUSKCN0QP1DS20150820 |access-date=28 November 2015 |archive-date=13 April 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413085906/http://www.reuters.com/article/us-egypt-palestinians-kidnapping-idUSKCN0QP1DS20150820 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Philippines===
{{main|Forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings in the Philippines|Philippine Drug War}}
[[File:Exterior_of_the_Baclaran_Church_24.jpg|thumb|150px|right|Bantayog Ng Mga Desaparecidos at [[Baclaran Church]]]]
Estimates vary for the number of victims of enforced disappearances in the Philippines. The [[William S. Richardson School of Law]] Library at the [[University of Hawaii]] places the number of the victims of enforced disappearances under the rule of [[Ferdinand Marcos]] at 783.<ref>{{Cite news |last= |date=22 September 2018 |title=Tish, Jessica, Hermon and other missing martial law activists |url=https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1035004/tish-jessica-hermon-and-other-missing-martial-law-activists |access-date=9 May 2019 |newspaper=Philippine Daily Inquirer |language=en |archive-date=13 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230213123643/https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1035004/tish-jessica-hermon-and-other-missing-martial-law-activists |url-status=live }}</ref> During the [[Marcos dictatorship]], many people who went missing were allegedly tortured, abducted, and killed by policemen.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Reyes |first=Rachela A.G |date=12 April 2016 |title=3,257: Fact-Checking the Marcos killings, 1975–1985 |work=[[The Manila Times]] |url=https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/04/12/opinion/columnists/3257-fact-checking-the-marcos-killings-1975-1985/255735 |access-date=14 December 2019 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110110956/https://www.manilatimes.net/2016/04/12/opinion/columnists/3257-fact-checking-the-marcos-killings-1975-1985/255735 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Charlie del Rosario was an activist and professor at the [[Polytechnic University of the Philippines]], and was last seen on the night of 19 March 1971 while putting up posters for the national congress of the Movement for a Democratic Philippines (MDP), inside the PCC Lepanto compound.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last= |date=15 October 2015 |title=Del Rosario, Carlos B. |url=https://www.bantayog.org/del-rosario-carlos-b/ |access-date=7 March 2022 |website=Bantayog ng mga Bayani |language=en-US |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307013224/https://www.bantayog.org/del-rosario-carlos-b/ |url-status=live }}</ref> The family suspected the Philippine government military in his abduction.<ref name=":3" /> Del Rosario, who was never seen nor heard from since, is considered the first victim of enforced disappearance during the Marcos regime.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Soriano |first=Liezelle |date=22 September 2020 |title='Desaparecido' PUP Prof Well Remembered on Martial Law Anniversary |url=https://thepost.net.ph/news/campus/desaparecido-pup-prof-well-remembered-on-martial-law-anniversary/ |access-date=7 March 2022 |website=The Post |language=en-US |archive-date=7 March 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220307013223/https://thepost.net.ph/news/campus/desaparecido-pup-prof-well-remembered-on-martial-law-anniversary/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Southern Tagalog 10|The Southern Tagalog 10]] was a group of activists working in Central Luzon during Marcos' martial law in the Philippines.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.bantayog.org/southern-tagalog-10/|title=The story of the Southern Tagalog 10|last=Ilagan|first=Bonifacio P.|date=11 October 2017|website=Bantayog ng mga Bayani|language=en-US|access-date=9 May 2019|archive-date=9 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509013032/http://www.bantayog.org/southern-tagalog-10/|url-status=live}}</ref> These 10 university students and professors were abducted and made to disappear during martial law.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web|url=https://seldapilipinas.wordpress.com/tag/southern-tagalog-10/|title=Southern Tagalog 10|date=22 October 2012|website=Samahan ng mga Ex-Detainees Laban sa Detensyon at Aresto (SELDA)|language=en|access-date=9 May 2019|archive-date=9 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190509013032/https://seldapilipinas.wordpress.com/tag/southern-tagalog-10/|url-status=live}}</ref> Three of them were later killed and "surfaced" by suspected agents of the state.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Faustino |first=Joey |title=No Closure 'til Justice is Achieved |url=http://www.afad-online.org/voice/april_03/nf_no_closure.htm |access-date=9 May 2019 |website=Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances |archive-date=29 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200729123901/https://www.afad-online.org/voice/april_03/nf_no_closure.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The rest remain missing to this day.<ref name=":2" />

===Romania===
{{Expand section|date=March 2023}}
During the [[Socialist Republic of Romania|communist regime]] of [[Nicolae Ceaușescu]], it is claimed that forced disappearances occurred. For example, during the strikes of 1977 and 1987 in [[Romania]], leading persons involved in the strikes are alleged to have been "disappeared".<ref>Forsythe, David P. [https://books.google.com/books?id=1QbX90fmCVUC&pg=PA275 ''Encyclopedia of Human Rights, Volume 1''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073045/https://books.google.com/books?id=1QbX90fmCVUC&pg=PA275#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=8 November 2023 }}. Harvard University Press, 1971, p. 200.</ref>

===Russia===
Russian rights groups estimate there have been about 5,000 forced disappearances in [[Chechnya]] since 1999.<ref>{{cite news |date=27 July 2006 |title=Russia censured over Chechen man |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5219254.stm |access-date=8 May 2009 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111001/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5219254.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Most of them are believed to be buried in several dozen mass graves.

The [[Russian government]] failed to pursue any accountability process for [[human rights abuses]] committed during the course of the conflict in Chechnya. Unable to secure justice domestically, hundreds of victims of abuse have filed applications with the [[European Court of Human Rights]] (ECHR). In March 2005 the court issued the first rulings on Chechnya, finding the Russian government guilty of violating the right to life and the prohibition of torture with respect to civilians who had died or been forcibly disappeared at the hands of Russia's federal troops.<ref>{{Cite web |title=European Court Rules Against Moscow |url=https://iwpr.net/global-voices/european-court-rules-against-moscow |access-date=2023-05-23 |website=iwpr.net |language=en |archive-date=27 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230127122443/https://iwpr.net/global-voices/european-court-rules-against-moscow |url-status=live }}</ref>

Since the [[annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation]], [[Amnesty International]] has documented several enforced disappearances of ethnic [[Crimean Tatars]], none of which has been effectively investigated. On 24 May 2014 Ervin Ibragimov, a former member of the [[Bakhchysarai]] Town Council and a member of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars went missing. [[CCTV]] footage from a camera at a nearby shop captured a group of men stopping Ibragimov, speaking with him briefly before forcing him into their van.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/EUR5041212016ENGLISH.pdf|title=URGENT ACTION: CRIMEAN TATAR ACTIVIST FORCIBLY DISAPPEARED|work=Amnesty International|date=25 May 2016 |access-date=26 January 2020|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110110956/https://www.amnesty.org/download/Documents/EUR5041212016ENGLISH.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> According to the [[Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group]], Russian authorities refused to investigate the disappearance of Ibragimov.<ref>{{cite web |last=Coynash |first=Halya |date=2018-03-27 |title=Russia refuses to investigate the abduction of prominent Crimean Tatar activist Ervin Ibragimov |url=http://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1522112890 |work=Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group |access-date=26 January 2020 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111014/https://khpg.org/en/index.php?id=1522112890 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===South Korea===
{{See also|Jeju uprising|Bodo League massacre}}
[[File:Prisoners on ground before execution,Taejon, South Korea.jpg|thumb|Political prisoners lie on the ground before execution by South Korean troops near [[Daejeon]], South Korea.<ref name="apphoto">{{cite news |url=http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/jul/10/korea-bloodbath-probe-ends-us-escapes-much-blame/ |title=Korea bloodbath probe ends; US escapes much blame |agency=[[Associated Press]] |work=San Diego Union Tribune |author=Charles J. Hanley & Hyung-Jin Kim |date=10 July 2010 |access-date=23 May 2011 |archive-date=20 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220620215854/https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/ |url-status=live }}</ref>]]

Forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings were openly used by the [[First Republic of Korea]] during the [[Jeju uprising]], during the [[Korea War]], and as part of the [[Bodo league massacre]] during the Korean war. A [[taboo]] to speak about these incidents lasted until the [[June Democratic Struggle|end of authoritarian rule]] in South Korea in 1993. 

During the persecution of alleged leftist sympathizers during the war, ordinary civilians under suspicion were rounded up and grouped into four groups A, B, C and D. Groups C and D were shot immediately and buried in unmarked mass graves. A and B were drafted and/or sent on to [[National Defense Corps incident|death marches]] or held in Bodo League reeducation facilities.

Survivors and family members of extrajudicially killed and disappeared or re-educated persons faced death and forced disappearance if they talked about these incidences during the period of authoritarian rule.

Many of the forced disappearances and accidentally discovered mass graves during authoritarian rule were falsely blamed on [[North Korea]]ns or the [[People's Liberation Army]] of China. South Korea is currently involved in shedding light on some of these incidences using the [[Truth and Reconciliation Commission (South Korea)#Scope of Investigation: Human Rights Abuses under Allied occupation|Truth and Reconciliation Commission]]. Some of the forced disappearance victims include high-profile politicians such as late South Korean President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate [[Kim Dae-jung]], who was forcefully disappeared from his Tokyo hotel room. His [[Kidnapping of Kim Dae-jung#Kidnapping|attempted murder by throwing him with weights on his legs]] overboard into the open sea was coordinated by the [[National Intelligence Service (South Korea)|National Intelligence Service]] and the [[Toa-kai]] [[yakuza]] syndicate.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kaplan |first1=David E. |last2=Dubro |first2=Alec |title=Yakuza: Japan's Criminal Underworld |date=22 October 2012 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-27490-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6Kln-SUqKW0C |language=en |pages=226–227}}</ref>

===Spain===
{{See also|List of people executed by Francoist Spain|White Terror (Spain)}}
[[File:Spanish Civil War - Mass grave - Estépar, Burgos.jpg|right|thumb|300px|A mass grave of [[Second Spanish Republic|Spanish republicans]] near [[Estépar]] in northern Spain. The excavation took place in July–August 2014.]]

The [[United Nations]] working group for Human Rights reported in 2013 that during the period between the [[Spanish Civil War]] (1936–1939) and the end of [[Francisco Franco]]'s dictatorship (1939–1975), an estimated 114,226 people "disappeared" by being forcibly taken away by either official or unofficial armed groups, where they were secretly murdered and later buried in undisclosed locations. The report also mentions the systematic [[Child abduction|kidnapping]] and "stealing" of approximately 30,960 children and newborns, which continued even after the [[Spanish transition to democracy|end of the dictatorship]] during the 1970s and 1980s.<ref>{{cite web |date=30 September 2013 |title=Observaciones preliminares del Grupo de Trabajo sobre las Desapariciones Forzadas o Involuntarias de la ONU al concluir su visita a España |url=http://www.ohchr.org/SP/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13800&LangID=S |website=[[OHCHR]] |language=es |access-date=31 July 2014 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111005/https://www.ohchr.org/SP/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13800&LangID=S |url-status=live }}</ref>

The disappearances include whole Republican military units, such as the [[221st Mixed Brigade (Spain)|221st Mixed Brigade]]. The families of the deceased soldiers speculate that the bodies of the disappeared members of this unit may have ended up in unknown [[mass grave]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.elche.me/taxonomy/term/3194/all?type=All |website=Elche |title=Memoria Digital, 221 Brigada Mixta |access-date=22 March 2015 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111003/https://www.elche.me/taxonomy/term/3194/all?type=All |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://boards5.melodysoft.com/armhc/re-necesito-ayuda-datos-de-la-brigada-2782.html|website=Melodysoft.com|title=Re: Necesito ayuda datos de la brigada mixta 221 y 222 en Castellon y Valencia|access-date=22 March 2015|archive-date=12 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160512231018/http://boards5.melodysoft.com/armhc/re-necesito-ayuda-datos-de-la-brigada-2782.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

It was not until 2008 that the first attempt was made to take the issue to court,<ref>{{cite news |date=16 October 2008 |title=Garzón abre la primera causa de la historia contra el franquismo |work=[[El País]] |url=http://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/17/portada/1224194404_850215.html |access-date=21 May 2016 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110110952/https://elpais.com/diario/2008/10/17/portada/1224194404_850215.html |url-status=live }}</ref> with that attempt failing and with the judge in charge of the process, [[Baltasar Garzón]], being himself impeached and subsequently disqualified.<ref>{{cite web |author=Peral |first=María |date=2012-09-02 |title=Las claves de las tres causas de Garzón en el Tribunal Supremo |url=http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/03/15/espana/1268667624.html |access-date=21 May 2016 |website=[[El Mundo (Spain)|El Mundo]] |language=es |archive-date=13 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230113065534/https://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2010/03/15/espana/1268667624.html |url-status=live }}</ref> The UN's Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has openly<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://undocs.org/A/HRC/27/49/Add.1|title=A/HRC/27/49/Add.1 – E – A/HRC/27/49/Add.1|website=undocs.org|access-date=19 June 2019|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110110951/https://undocs.org/A/HRC/27/49/Add.1|url-status=live}}</ref> stated that the [[Spanish Government]] is failing to its duties in these matters. {{as of|2017}} the Spanish authorities keep actively hampering the investigation into forced disappearances that took place during and after the civil war.<ref>{{cite web |author=Borraz |first=Marta |date=30 August 2017 |title=España sigue bloqueando la investigación de las desapariciones del franquismo tras 15 años de reproches de la ONU |url=http://www.eldiario.es/sociedad/Espana-entorpeciendo-investigacion-desapariciones-ONU_0_681032081.html |access-date=30 August 2017 |work=[[elDiario.es]] |language=es |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111005/https://www.eldiario.es/sociedad/Espana-entorpeciendo-investigacion-desapariciones-ONU_0_681032081.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

==== Estimate of the ''Desaparecidos del franquismo'' ====
Identification and systematic analysis of the bones of victims in mass graves have not yet, to date, been undertaken by any government of the current Spanish democracy (since 1977).

According to ''[[La Nueva España]]'' newspaper, the data of people buried in mass graves brought before the ''[[Audiencia Nacional]]'' court on 16 October 2008 are the following:<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lne.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2008101600_43_686147__Espana-Hubo-114266-desaparecidos-entre-1936-1951-segun-auto-juez-Garzon|work=La Nueva España|title=Report|date=16 October 2008|access-date=27 January 2015|archive-date=19 February 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230219231715/http://www.lne.es/secciones/noticia.jsp?pRef=2008101600_43_686147__Espana-Hubo-114266-desaparecidos-entre-1936-1951-segun-auto-juez-Garzon|url-status=dead}}</ref>

*[[Andalusia]]: 32,289 ([[Almería]]: 373, [[Cádiz]]: 1,665, [[Córdoba, Spain|Córdoba]]: 7,091, [[Granada]]: 5,048, [[Huelva]]: 3,805, [[Jaén, Spain|Jaén]]: 3,253, [[Málaga]]: 7,797, [[Sevilla]]: 3,257)
*[[Aragón]]: 10,178 ([[Huesca]]: 2,061, [[Teruel]]: 1,338, [[Zaragoza]]: 6,779)
*[[Asturias]]: 1,246 ([[Gijón]]: 1,246)
*[[Balearic Islands]]: 1,777 ([[Mallorca]]: 1,486, [[Menorca]]: 106, [[Eivissa]] and [[Formentera]]: 185)
*[[Canary Islands]]: 262 ([[Gran Canaria]]: 200, [[Tenerife]]: 62)
*[[Cantabria]]: 850
*[[Castilla-La Mancha]]: 7,067 ([[Albacete]]: 1,026, [[Ciudad Real]]: 1,694, [[Cuenca, Spain|Cuenca]]: 377, [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]]: 3,970)
*[[Castilla-León]]: 12,979 ([[Ávila]]: 650, [[Burgos]]: 4,800, [[León, Spain|León]]: 1,250, [[Palencia]]: 1,180, [[Salamanca]]: 650, [[Segovia]]: 370, [[Soria]]: 287, [[Valladolid]]: 2,555, [[Zamora, Spain|Zamora]]: 1,237)
*[[Catalonia]]: 2,400
*[[Valencian Community]]: 4,345 ([[Alicante]]: 742, [[Castellón de la Plana|Castellón]]: 1,303, [[Valencia]]: 2,300)
*[[Basque Country (autonomous community)|Basque Country]]: 9,459 ([[Álava]]: 100, [[Guipúzcoa]]: 340, [[Biscay|Vizcaya]]: 369)
**[[Basque Government]] data: 8,650
*[[Extremadura]]: 10,266
*[[Galicia (Spain)|Galicia]]: 4,396
*[[La Rioja]]: 2,007
*[[Madrid]]: 2,995
*[[Murcia]]: 855
*[[Navarra]]: 3,431
*[[Ceuta]], [[Melilla]] and North African territories: 464
*Other territories: 7,000
*Total: 114,266
**The final total number was corrected and expanded during the course of the trials, reaching a total of 143,353

===Sri Lanka===
{{Main|Enforced disappearances in Sri Lanka}}
{{Tone|date=August 2021}}
Since 1980, 12,000 Sri Lankans have gone missing after being detained by security forces. More than 55,000 people have been killed in the past 27 years.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/306447.stm | work=BBC News | title=Sri Lanka's disappeared thousands | date=28 March 1999 | access-date=30 March 2010 | archive-date=23 April 2010 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100423150335/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/306447.stm | url-status=live }}</ref> The figures are still lower than the then-current Sri Lankan government's 2009 estimate of 17,000 people missing,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/2093/ |title=SRI LANKA: Registers on entry and leaving of internally displaced persons needs to be created urgently to prevent forced disappearances |publisher=Ahrchk.net |date=16 June 2009 |access-date=30 December 2010 |archive-date=3 December 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101203003818/http://www.ahrchk.net/statements/mainfile.php/2009statements/2093/ |url-status=live }}</ref> which was made after it came to power with a commitment to correct the human rights issues.

In 2003, the [[International Red Cross]] (ICRC)<ref>{{cite news |last=Kirby |first=Emma Jane |date=19 February 2003 |title=Red Cross tackles war missing |work=[[BBC News]] |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2780733.stm |access-date=30 March 2010 |archive-date=20 October 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131020172140/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2780733.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> restarted investigations into the disappearance of 11,000 people during [[Sri Lanka's civil war]].

On 29 May 2009, the British newspaper ''[[The Times]]'' acquired confidential U.N. documents that record nearly 7,000 civilian deaths in the no-fire zone up to the end of April. The toll then surged, the paper quoted unidentified U.N. sources as saying, with an average of 1,000 civilians killed each day until 19 May, when the government declared victory over the [[Tamil Tiger]] rebels. That means the final death toll is more than 20,000, ''The Times'' said. "Higher", a U.N. source told the paper. "Keep going."{{Tone inline|date=August 2021}} The United Nations has previously said 7,000 civilians were killed in fighting between January and May. A top Sri Lankan official called the 20,000-figure unfounded. Gordon Weiss, a U.N. spokesman in Sri Lanka, told [[CNN]] that a large number of civilians were killed, though he did not confirm the 20,000 figure.

Former US Secretary of State [[Hillary Clinton]] has accused Sri Lanka of "causing untold suffering".<ref>{{cite news |last=Sengupta |first=Somini |date=23 April 2009 |title=U.S. Faults Sri Lanka on Civilian Woes |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/world/asia/23lanka.html |access-date=30 March 2010 |archive-date=7 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207130059/http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/23/world/asia/23lanka.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Syria===
{{Tone|date=March 2023}}
According to [[Human Rights Watch]], no fewer than 17,000 people disappeared during [[Hafez al-Assad]]'s 30-year rule.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Houry |first=Nadim |date=2010-07-16 |title=A Wasted Decade |url=https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/07/16/wasted-decade/human-rights-syria-during-bashar-al-asads-first-ten-years-power |journal=Human Rights Watch |language=en |access-date=23 May 2023 |archive-date=7 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230307204959/https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/07/16/wasted-decade/human-rights-syria-during-bashar-al-asads-first-ten-years-power |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[Bashar al-Assad]] took his father's policy further and considered any voice questioning anything about Syria's political, economic, social, or otherwise policies should be monitored and when needed, detained and accused of weakening national empathy.<ref>{{Cite news |date=21 October 2015 |title=Syrian President Bashar al-Assad: Facing down rebellion |language=en-GB |work=[[BBC News]] |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/10338256 |access-date=30 March 2017 |archive-date=11 April 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190411120901/https://www.bbc.com/news/10338256 |url-status=live }}</ref> A recent case is [[Tal Mallohi]], a 19-year-old blogger summoned for interrogation on 27 December 2009, who was released over 4 years later.<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 February 2014 |title=Tal al-Mallohi is free, the Syrian people triumph |language=en-GB |work=[[Middle East Monitor]] |url=https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140211-tal-al-mallohi-is-free-the-syrian-people-triumph/ |access-date=30 March 2017 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110112104/https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20140211-tal-al-mallohi-is-free-the-syrian-people-triumph/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

In November 2015, [[Amnesty International]] released a report accusing the [[Syrian government]] and its allied militants of kidnapping tens of thousands of people since 2011.<ref>{{Cite web|url = http://ara.reuters.com/article/topNews/idARAKCN0SU05R20151105|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20151106152405/http://ara.reuters.com/article/topNews/idARAKCN0SU05R20151105|url-status = dead|archive-date = 6 November 2015|script-title=ar:منظمة العفو الدولية تدين عمليات اختفاء قسري في سوريا|date = 5 November 2015|access-date = 25 November 2015|work = Reuters|language=ar}}</ref> The international organization said that such acts represent a crime against humanity. The organization called Syrian government to allow the entry of the [[UN]]'s international committee of inquiry observers in order to access information related to the detainees. Amnesty International has claimed that more than 65,000 people, mostly [[civilians]], have been forcibly disappeared between March 2011 and August 2015. The Syrian government, on the other hand, has repeatedly denied reports accusing it of committing crimes against humanity.

===Thailand===
{{See also|Human rights in Thailand#Forced disappearances}}
In 2013, the ''[[Bangkok Post]]'' reported that Police General Vasit Dejkunjorn, founder of the Thai Spring movement, told a seminar that forced disappearance is a tool which corrupt state power uses to eliminate individuals deemed a threat.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Bangprapa |first1=Mongkol |last2=Charoensuthipan |first2=Penchan |date=23 June 2013 |title=Govt urged to tackle 'state killings' |work=[[Bangkok Post]] |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/356448/govt-urged-to-tackle-tate-killings |access-date=6 March 2023 |archive-date=8 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073054/https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/356448/govt-urged-to-tackle-tate-killings |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to [[Amnesty International|Amnesty Thailand]], at least 59 human-rights defenders have been victims of forced disappearance between 1998 and 2018.<ref name=Nation-20181205>{{cite news |last1=Saengpassa |first1=Chularat |title=Bill on torture to go before NLA |url=http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30359857 |access-date=5 December 2018 |work=The Nation |date=5 December 2018 |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111006/https://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30359857 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Attorney [[Somchai Neelapaijit]], [[Karen people|Karen]] activist [[Disappearance of Billy Rakchongcharoen|Pholachi "Billy" Rakchongcharoen]], and activist Den Khamlae<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cooper |first1=Zac |last2=Van Buskirk |first2=Caroline |last3=Fernes |first3=Praveena |date=17 May 2017 |title=Den Khamlae – The disappearing face of a land rights movement |work=The Isaan Record |url=https://isaanrecord.com/2017/05/15/den-khamlae-disappearing-face-land-rights-movement/ |url-status=dead |access-date=5 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031220602/https://isaanrecord.com/2017/05/15/den-khamlae-disappearing-face-land-rights-movement/ |archive-date=2020-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |date=22 April 2016 |title=Activist goes missing amid land dispute |work=[[Bangkok Post]] |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/942517/activist-goes-missing-amid-land-dispute |access-date=5 December 2018 |archive-date=8 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073102/https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/942517/activist-goes-missing-amid-land-dispute |url-status=live }}</ref> are among those who disappeared.<ref name=Nation-20181205/>

[[Haji Sulong]], a reformist and a separatist disappeared in 1954. He sought for greater recognition of the ''[[Thai Malays|Jawi]]'' community in [[Pattani Province|Patani]] and [[Tanong Po-arn]]. The [[Thailand|Thai]] labour union leader who disappeared following the [[1991 Thai coup d'état]] by [[National Peace Keeping Council]] against the elected government.

On 12 March 2004, [[Somchai Neelapaijit]], a well-known [[Thai Muslim]] activist lawyer in the kingdom's [[Southern Thailand|southern region]], was kidnapped by Thai police and has since disappeared. Officially listed as a disappeared person, his presumed widow, Ankhana Neelapaichit, has been seeking justice for her husband since Somchai went missing. On 11 March 2009, Mrs Neelapaichit was part of a special panel at the [[Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand]] to commemorate her husband's disappearance and to keep attention focused on the case and on human rights abuses in [[Thailand]].

According to the legal assistance group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, at least 86 Thais left Thailand seeking asylum abroad following the [[2014 Thai coup d'état|military takeover]] in May 2014. Among them are the four members of the Thai band [[Faiyen|Fai Yen]], some of whose songs mock the monarchy, [[Lèse majesté in Thailand|a serious offense]] in Thailand. The band announced on social media that its members feared for their lives after "many trusted people told us that the Thai military will come to kill us."<ref>{{cite news|last1=Bengali|first1=Shashank|date=28 May 2019|title=Arrests, killings strike fear in Thailand's dissidents: 'The hunting has been accelerated'|work=Los Angeles Times|url=https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-thailand-dissidents-20190528-story.html|access-date=2 June 2019|archive-date=2 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190602045016/https://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-thailand-dissidents-20190528-story.html|url-status=live}}</ref> All of those who disappeared in late-2018 and early-2019 were accused by Thai authorities of anti-monarchical activity.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Vejpongsa |first1=Tassanee |last2=Peck |first2=Grant |date=2019-05-29 |title=Thai musicians in exile for their songs fear for their lives |url=https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-thailand-southeast-asia-international-news-asia-9e3a92e4a6084d2dbc01907513d68085 |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[Associated Press]] |language=en |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173757/https://apnews.com/article/asia-pacific-thailand-southeast-asia-international-news-asia-9e3a92e4a6084d2dbc01907513d68085 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Two Thai activists went missing while living in exile in [[Vientiane, Laos]]: Itthipol Sukpaen, who vanished in June 2016; and Wuthipong "Ko Tee" Kochathamakun, who disappeared from his residence in July 2017. Eyewitnesses said Wuthipong was abducted by a group of Thai-speaking men dressed in black.<ref>{{cite news |date=25 January 2019 |title=Solve Mekong killings case |work=[[Bangkok Post]] |format= |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1617442/solve-mekong-killings-case |access-date=25 January 2019}}</ref>

In December 2018, [[Surachai Danwattananusorn]], a Thai political exile, and two aides went missing from their home in Vientiane, Laos. The two aides were later found murdered.<ref name="Telegraph-20190124">{{cite news |last1=Smith |first1=Nicola |title=Gruesome Laos deaths of Thai activists sends chill through dissident community in exile |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/24/gruesome-laos-deaths-thai-activists-sends-chill-dissident-community/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/24/gruesome-laos-deaths-thai-activists-sends-chill-dissident-community/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |access-date=25 January 2019 |work=The Telegraph |date=24 January 2019}}{{cbignore}}</ref> Some in the Thai media see the forced disappearances and murders as a warning to anti-monarchists.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rojanaphruk |first1=Pravit |date=26 January 2019 |title=Opinion: Unmistakable Message to Thailand Surfaces in Mekong |work=[[Khaosod]] |url=http://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2019/01/26/opinion-unmistakable-message-to-thailand-surfaces-in-mekong/ |access-date=26 January 2019 |archive-date=26 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190126164445/http://www.khaosodenglish.com/opinion/2019/01/26/opinion-unmistakable-message-to-thailand-surfaces-in-mekong/ |url-status=live }}</ref> {{Asof|January 2019}}, Surachai remains missing. The number of "disappeared" Thai activists exiled in Laos may be as high as five since 2015.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Norman |first1=Anne |title=What do Thailand and Saudi Arabia have in common? |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/30/what-do-thailand-saudi-arabia-have-common/ |access-date=2 February 2019 |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=30 January 2019 |department=Opinion |archive-date=1 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190201161700/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/01/30/what-do-thailand-saudi-arabia-have-common/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Siam Theerawut, Chucheep Chivasut, and Kritsana Thapthai, three Thai anti-monarchy activists, went missing on 8 May 2019, when they are thought to have been extradited to Thailand from [[Vietnam]] after they attempted to enter the country with [[Fake passport|counterfeit]] Indonesian passports. The trio are wanted in Thailand for insulting the monarchy and failing to report when summoned by the junta after the 2014 Thai coup d'état.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Rojanaphruk |first1=Pravit |date=14 May 2019 |title=Family Hopes Missing Republican is Still Alive |work=[[Khaosod]] |url=http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2019/05/14/family-hopes-missing-republican-is-still-alive/ |access-date=15 May 2019 |archive-date=15 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515010040/http://www.khaosodenglish.com/politics/2019/05/14/family-hopes-missing-republican-is-still-alive/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Hay |first1=Wayne |date=13 May 2019 |title=Thailand: Disappeared activists forced home from Vietnam |work=[[Al Jazeera English|Al Jazeera]] |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/thailand-disappeared-activists-forced-home-vietnam-190513143246497.html |access-date=15 May 2019 |archive-date=15 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515010039/https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/05/thailand-disappeared-activists-forced-home-vietnam-190513143246497.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Their disappearance passed the one year mark on 8 May 2020 with still no sign of the trio.<ref>{{cite news |date=16 May 2020 |title=1 year on, disappeared activist Siam Theerawut's whereabouts remain unclear |work=[[Prachatai]] |url=https://prachatai.com/english/node/8524 |access-date=17 May 2020 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523161352/https://prachatai.com/english/node/8524 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Thai pro-democracy activist [[Wanchalearm Satsaksit|Wanchalearn Satsaksit]] was abducted from [[Phnom Penh, Cambodia]] on 4 June 2020,<ref name="BP-20200610">{{cite news |date=10 June 2020 |title=Cambodia to probe activist 'abduction' |work=[[Bangkok Post]] |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1932100/cambodia-to-probe-activist-abduction |access-date=10 June 2020 |archive-date=8 November 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231108073655/https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1932100/cambodia-to-probe-activist-abduction |url-status=live |last1=Post |first1=Bangkok }}</ref> which prompted public concern and became a factor behind the [[2020 Thai protests]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chachavalpongpun |first=Pavin |date=2020-08-20 |title=Opinion {{!}} Students in Bangkok are challenging Thailand's biggest taboo |language=en |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/20/students-bangkok-are-challenging-thailands-biggest-taboo/ |access-date=22 August 2020 |archive-date=22 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200822032358/https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/08/20/students-bangkok-are-challenging-thailands-biggest-taboo/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Turkey===
Turkish human rights groups accuse the Turkish security forces of being responsible for the disappearance of more than 1,500<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.dirittiglobali.it/2018/07/los-desaparecidos-the-disappeared-turkish-style/|title=Los Desaparecidos – The Disappeared Turkish-Style – Diritti Globali|date=19 July 2018|work=Diritti Globali|access-date=15 November 2018|language=it-IT|archive-date=10 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110112513/https://www.dirittiglobali.it/2018/07/los-desaparecidos-the-disappeared-turkish-style/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Kurdish people|Kurdish]] minority civilians the 1980s and 1990s, in attempts to root out the [[PKK]]. Every week on Saturdays since 1995, [[Saturday Mothers]] hold silent vigils and [[Sit-in|sit-in protests]] to demand that their lost ones to be found and those responsible be brought to justice. Each year [[Yakay-Der]], the [[Turkish Human Rights Association]] (İHD) and the International Committee Against Disappearances (ICAD), organise a series of events in Turkey to mark the "Week of Disappeared People".

In April 2009, state prosecutors in Turkey ordered the excavation of several sites around Turkey believed to hold Kurdish victims of state death squads from the 1980s and 1990s, in response to calls for Turkey's security establishment to come clean about past abuses.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-11-02 |title=Turkey Begins Dig for Missing Kurds |url=https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2009-04-16-voa62-68639487/407826.html |access-date=2023-03-06 |website=[[Voice of America]] |language=en |archive-date=6 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230306173757/https://www.voanews.com/a/a-13-2009-04-16-voa62-68639487/407826.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

In a study published in June 2017 by Sweden-based [[Stockholm Center for Freedom]], 12 individual cases of enforced disappearances in Turkey since 2016 were documented under the emergency rule. The research titled as "Enforced Disappearances in Turkey" claimed that all cases were connected to clandestine elements within Turkish security forces. Turkish authorities were reluctant to investigate the cases despite pleas from family members.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://stockholmcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Enforced-Dissappearences-in-Turkey_22_June_2017.pdf | title=Enforced Disappearances in Turkey | date=June 2017 | publisher=Stockholm Center for Freedom | access-date=4 January 2019 | archive-date=10 January 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111007/https://stockholmcf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Enforced-Dissappearences-in-Turkey_22_June_2017.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref>

===Ukraine===
During the ongoing [[Russo-Ukrainian War]], there have been many cases of forced disappearances in the territory of the disputed [[Donetsk People's Republic]] (DPR). DPR leader [[Alexander Zakharchenko]] said that his forces detained up to five "Ukrainian subversives" each day. It was estimated that about 632 people were under illegal detention by separatist forces on 11 December 2014.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/9thOHCHRreportUkraine.pdf#sthash.HFQs2pv2.dpuf|title=Report on the human rights situation in Ukraine: 1 December 2014 to 15 February 2015|publisher=Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights|date=2 March 2015|access-date=3 March 2015|page=4|archive-date=12 March 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220312154247/https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/Countries/UA/9thOHCHRreportUkraine.pdf#sthash.HFQs2pv2.dpuf|url-status=live}}</ref>

On 2 June 2017 freelance journalist [[Stanislav Aseyev]] was abducted. The de facto DPR government first denied knowing his whereabouts, but on 16 July, an agent of the DPR's Ministry of State Security confirmed that Aseyev was in their custody and that he is suspected of [[espionage]]. Independent media is not allowed to report from DPR-controlled territory.<ref>{{cite press release | url=https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2017-07/FI16017_2.pdf?TRhWAnU9V9A389Kj6RGAvval.yqFVY_j | title=URGENT ACTION: IMPRISONED JOURNALIST MUST BE RELEASED | publisher=Amnesty International | date=21 July 2017 | access-date=10 February 2018 | archive-date=8 September 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200908131138/https://www.amnesty.org.uk/files/2017-07/FI16017_2.pdf?TRhWAnU9V9A389Kj6RGAvval.yqFVY_j | url-status=live }}</ref>

===United States===
{{See also|Operation Condor|CIA black sites}}
According to [[Amnesty International]] (AI), the United States has engaged in forced disappearance of prisoners of war, all captured overseas and never taken to the US, in the course of its [[War on Terror]]. AI lists at "least 39 detainees, all of whom are still missing, who are believed to have been held in secret sites run by the United States government overseas."<ref>{{cite web |date=7 June 2007 |title=Off the Record: U.S. Responsibility for Enforced Disappearances in the 'War on Terror' |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/093/2007/en |access-date=8 May 2013 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |publisher= |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111002/https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/093/2007/en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=6 February 2011 |title=USA: Torture, War Crimes, Accountability: Visit to Switzerland of Former U.S. President George W. Bush and Swiss Obligations Under International Law: Amnesty International's Memorandum to the Swiss Authorities |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/009/2011/en |access-date=8 May 2013 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |publisher= |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111000/https://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/009/2011/en |url-status=live }}</ref>

The [[United States Department of Defense]] kept the identity of the individuals it held in the US [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base]] ("Gitmo") in Cuba secret, from its opening on 11 January 2002 to 20 April 2006.<ref name=BostonGlobe060123/><ref name="Nytimes2006-02-26"/> An official list of the 558 individuals then held in the camp was published on 20 April 2006 in response to a court order from [[United States District Judge]] [[Jed Rakoff]].  Another list, stated to be of all 759 individuals who had been held in Guantanamo, was published on 20 May 2006.<ref name=DoDList2/>

In 2015, American journalist [[Spencer Ackerman]] wrote a series of articles in ''[[The Guardian]]'' on the [[Homan Square facility]] in [[Chicago]], comparing it to a [[CIA]] [[black site]]. Ackerman asserted that the facility was the "scene of secretive work by special police units," where the "basic constitutional rights" of "poor, black and brown" Chicago city residents were violated.<ref name=":5">{{Cite news |last=Ackerman |first=Spencer |date=2015-02-24 |title=The disappeared: Chicago police detain Americans at abuse-laden 'black site' |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site |access-date=2023-03-04 |issn=0261-3077 |archive-date=7 June 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170607113347/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/feb/24/chicago-police-detain-americans-black-site |url-status=live }}</ref> Ackerman asserted that "Chicagoans who end up inside do not appear to have a public, searchable record entered into a database indicating where they are, as happens when someone is booked at a precinct. Lawyers and relatives insist there is no way of finding their whereabouts. Those lawyers who have attempted to gain access to Homan Square are most often turned away, even as their clients remain in custody inside."<ref name=":5" />

According to [[Human Rights Watch]], the [[March 2025 American deportations of Venezuelans]] to the maximum-security [[Terrorism Confinement Center]] prison in [[El Salvador]] were enforced disappearances.<ref>{{Cite news |date=11 April 2025 |title=US/El Salvador: Venezuelan Deportees Forcibly Disappeared |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/11/us/el-salvador-venezuelan-deportees-forcibly-disappeared |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250411160557/https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/04/11/us/el-salvador-venezuelan-deportees-forcibly-disappeared |archive-date=11 April 2025 |access-date=12 April 2025 |work=Human Rights Watch |publication-place=Washington, D.C.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Goldsmith |first=Eloise |date=11 April 2025 |title=US and El Salvador Guilty of 'Grave' Crimes of Enforced Disappearance, Arbitrary Detention: HRW |url=https://www.commondreams.org/news/hrw-alien-enemies-act-el-salvador |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250412002624/https://www.commondreams.org/news/hrw-alien-enemies-act-el-salvador |archive-date=12 April 2025 |access-date=12 April 2025 |work=[[Common Dreams]]}}</ref>

=== Uruguay ===
{{Main|Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay#Forceful_disappearances}}
During [[Uruguay]]'s [[Civic-military dictatorship of Uruguay|civic-military dictatorship]], an approximated 197 Uruguayans were illegally detained and forcefully disappeared,<ref>{{cite news |title=Uruguay bill stirs debate about dictatorship-era crimes |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-67785302 |work=BBC |date=4 January 2024}}</ref> and at least [[Macarena Gelman|one child]] of a kidnapped person born in captivity was appropiated. As of 2025, the bodies of 31 of these people have been identified by forensic teams.<ref>{{cite news |title=Nearly 50 years after her death, Uruguay lays to rest a woman disappeared by its dictatorship |url=https://apnews.com/article/uruguay-dictatorship-burial-disappeared-militants-history-901429b132cd3c5e2e6af8d201ca646c |work=AP News |date=6 June 2024 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Venezuela ===
{{Main|Enforced disappearances in Venezuela}}
A report produced by [[Foro Penal]] and [[Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights]] documents that 200 cases of forced disappearances in 2018 increased to 524 in 2019, attributed to increased protests. The analysis found that the average disappearance lasted just over five days, suggesting the government sought to avoid the scrutiny that might accompany large-scale and long-term detentions.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Turkewitz|first1=Julie|last2=Kurmanaev|first2=Anatoly|date=19 June 2020|title=A Knock, Then Gone: Venezuela Secretly Detains Hundreds to Silence Critics|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/world/americas/venezuela-forced-disappearances-Maduro.html|access-date=20 June 2020|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=19 June 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200619092846/https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/19/world/americas/venezuela-forced-disappearances-Maduro.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite report|author1=[[Foro Penal]]|title=Reporte Sobre La Represión En Venezuela. Año 2019|date=23 January 2020|url=https://foropenal.com/reporte-sobre-la-represion-en-venezuela-ano-2019/|language=es|page=13|access-date=1 February 2020|archive-date=25 October 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221025175713/http://foropenal.com/reporte-sobre-la-represion-en-venezuela-ano-2019/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Former Yugoslavia===
{{Main article|War crimes in the Yugoslav Wars}}
{{Expand section|date=August 2021}}
Thousands of people were subject to forced disappearance during the [[Yugoslav Wars]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Citroni |first1=Gabriella |title=The Specialist Chambers of Kosovo: The Applicable Law and the Special Challenges Related to the Crime of Enforced Disappearance |journal=Journal of International Criminal Justice |date=2016 |volume=14 |issue=1 |pages=123–143 |doi=10.1093/jicj/mqv084}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Refugees |first=United Nations High Commissioner for |title=Refworld {{!}} "Disappeared" in Former Yugoslavia |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9ca1c.html |access-date=2023-05-23 |website=Refworld |language=en |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110110951/https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6a9ca1c.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=29 August 2012 |title=Balkans: Thousands still missing two decades after conflicts |url=https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2012/08/balkans-thousands-still-missing-two-decades-after-conflicts/ |access-date=28 September 2020 |website=[[Amnesty International]] |language=en |archive-date=10 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230110111003/https://www.amnesty.org/en/press-releases/2012/08/balkans-thousands-still-missing-two-decades-after-conflicts/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Enforced disappearances within migration ==
The increasingly perilous journeys of migrants and refugees and the ever more rigid migration policies of states and transnational organizations like the [[2015 European migrant crisis|European Union]] cause a particular risk for migrants to become victims of enforced disappearances.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Baranowska|first=Grażyna|title=Disappeared Migrants and Refugees. The Relevance of the International Convention on Enforced Disappearance in their search and protection|publisher=German Institute for Human Rights|year=2020|isbn=978-3-946499-76-3}}</ref> This has been recognized by the UN's Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.<ref>Report of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on enforced disappearances in the context of migration, A/HRC/36/39/Add.2, 28 July 2017</ref> Also the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances recognized the increased risk of enforced disappearances as a result of migration in the Guiding Principles for the Search of Disappeared Persons.<ref>Guiding principles for the search for disappeared persons, CED/C/7, 8 May 2019</ref>

==See also==
{{div col}}
* [[Lists of people who disappeared]]
* [[Arbitrary arrest and detention]]
* Argentine [[Dirty War]]
* [[Black jails]] (China)
* [[Black site]]s
* [[Causeway Bay Books disappearances]]
* [[Comisión Nacional sobre la Desaparición de Personas]]
* [[Command responsibility]]
* ''[[Damnatio memoriae]]''
* [[Extraordinary rendition]]
* [[Ghost detainee]]
* ''[[Gukurahundi]]''
* [[Inter-American Convention on Forced Disappearance Persons]]
* [[International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance]]
* [[International Day of the Disappeared]]
* [[Missing person]]
* [[Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo]], an Argentine activist group formed by mothers of ''desaparecidos''
* ''[[Nacht und Nebel]]''
* [[National Defense Authorization Act]]
* [[North Korean abductions of Japanese]]
* [[Salt Pit]]
* [[Saturday Mothers]], a Turkish activist group similar to [[Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo]]
* [[Secret police]]
* [[Residential Surveillance at a Designated Location]]
* [[Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action]]
{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist|colwidth=30em|
refs=
<ref name=DoDList2>
{{cite web
 |url=http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf 
 |title=List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through May 15, 2006 
 |author=OARDEC 
 |publisher=[[United States Department of Defense]] 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930184034/http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf 
 |archive-date=30 September 2007
 |url-status=dead 
 |access-date=15 May 2006
 |author-link=OARDEC 
 }}
{{Wikisource-inline|List of Individuals Detained by the Department of Defense at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba from January 2002 through 15 May 2006}}
</ref>
<ref name=BostonGlobe060123>
{{cite news 
| url          = http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/23/judge_orders_release_of_gitmo_detainee_ids/ 
| title        = Judge Orders Release of Gitmo Detainee IDs
| publisher    = [[The Boston Globe]]
| author       = Larry Neumeister
| date         = 23 January 2006
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20070313160527/http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/01/23/judge_orders_release_of_gitmo_detainee_ids/
| archive-date = 13 March 2007
| access-date  = 11 April 2015
| url-status   = live 
}}
</ref>
<ref name="Nytimes2006-02-26">
{{cite news 
| url          = https://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/politics/26gitmo.html
| title        = Pentagon Plans to Tell Names of Detainees 
| work         = The New York Times
| author       = Thom Shanker
| date         = 26 February 2006
| location     = [[Washington, D.C.]]
| archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20130921075556/http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/politics/26gitmo.html
| archive-date = 21 September 2013
| access-date  = 11 April 2015
| url-status   = live 
}}
</ref>
}}

==External links==
{{Wiktionary|disappearance}}
* [https://www.ictj.org/our-work/transitional-justice-issues/gender-justice International Center for Transitional Justice, Gender Justice page]
* [http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/prisoners-and-people-at-risk/detention-and-imprisonment/day-of-the-disappeared?msource=W1108EAIAR03&tr=y&auid=9399739 Amnesty International: Day of the Disappeared]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110315074248/http://www.icad-int.org/ International Committee Against Disappearances]
* [http://www.familylinks.icrc.org Familylinks.icrc.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120150918/https://familylinks.icrc.org/ |date=20 January 2022 }}—Website for people looking for family members missing due to a conflict or natural disaster. International Committee of the Red Cross.
* [http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/disappear/index.htm UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100426065942/http://www.ecchr.de/argentina.370.html Video Reports from Argentina: The trials of those who carried out disappearances]
* Human Rights First; [http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/PDF/behind-the-wire-033005.pdf Behind the Wire: An Update to Ending Secret Detentions (2005)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100621091027/http://www.humanrightsfirst.org/us_law/PDF/behind-the-wire-033005.pdf |date=21 June 2010 }}
* [http://www.democracynow.org/2010/11/12/nieto_recuperado_born_to_parents_disappeared {{"'}}Nieto Recuperado'—Born to Parents Disappeared by Argentina's Dictatorship, Kidnapped and Raised by a Military Family, a 'Recovered Grandchild' Finds His Way Home"] – video report by ''[[Democracy Now!]]''

{{World topic| prefix= Forced disappearances in | noredlinks=yes}} 
{{World topic| prefix= Forced disappearances in | title = [[Forced disappearances]] by country |noredlinks=yes}}
{{Substantive human rights}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Enforced Disappearance}}
[[Category:Enforced disappearance| ]]
[[Category:Imprisonment and detention]]
[[Category:Counterterrorism]]
[[Category:Political crimes]]
[[Category:Human rights abuses]]
[[Category:Kidnapping]]
[[Category:Political repression]]
[[Category:Crimes against humanity by type]]
[[Category:War crimes by type]]
[[Category:Euphemisms]]
[[Category:Extrajudicial killings by type]]