On 30 August 2025, ABColombia observes the International Day for Enforced Disappearances. We remember the victims many of whom were working to defend the rights of others and highlight the courage of the families who continue to search for justice for their loved ones.
We join with those in Colombia calling for improved legislation and continuing our support for them as they search for justice. Enforced disappearance is an ongoing crime that often paralyses the lives of families as they live in constant hope of finding their loved one. Enforced disappearance, a form of psychological torture, is used as a strategy to spread terror. The feeling of insecurity generated by this practice is not limited to close relatives of the disappeared but affects entire communities and can be felt throughout society. The threat alone discourages communities from reporting the crime, seeking justice or speaking out against injustice through fear of a reprisal.
The horrific practice of enforced disappearance persists because 99% of cases remain in impunity. Despite this and the risks families face, they continue to search for their loved ones and the truth about what happened to them.
The role of searching often falls to women, many of whom have become leaders and human rights defenders, forming organisations, supporting other families, engaging with authorities and seeking to protect the rights of others. This often places them at heightened risk, as they continue the search. Women can face severe repercussions for their activism. They are often stigmatised, subject to disdain, their reputations and dignity damaged. They can be discriminated against, and endure physical and sexual violence. The abuse they suffer is part of a larger pattern of violence against women that exists throughout Colombia.
Elizabeth Santander exemplifies the resilience of women searchers, continuing to fight for truth. For 38 years, Elizabeth Santander has campaigned tirelessly for the truth about the disappearance of her husband, Marino Escobar Aroca, whilst also supporting many others in their search for the truth. She has done this as part of a group of families devastated by enforced disappearance, who now live in exile.
The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation also continues to support women searchers and was instrumental in the creation of law 2364, further protecting their rights. Founded by the family of Erika who disappeared in 1987 and is thought to have been tortured and sexually abused before her body was dumped in a grave with no name. The Foundation has continued to campaign against the crime of enforced disappearance in Colombia and although subject to violence, abuse and death threats, they have continued to campaign for legislative change that will help protect searchers, hold perpetrators accountable and find and identify the victims of enforced disappearance.
A Brief History
Enforced disappearance in Colombia was a key strategy for illegal armed groups, state agents, or other groups or collaborating actors, with the aims to exercise political, economic, territorial, and population control. The Truth Commission stated in its Final Report that the number of victims of enforced disappearance between 1985 and 2016 was around 210,000, but in a phenomenon that is based on deception and concealment, it is impossible to verify the true scale of enforced disappearance in Colombia.
In its Executive Summary, the Colombian Truth Commission’s report published in June 2022 identified over 110,000 direct victims of enforced disappearances with the main perpetrators being: paramilitaries (52%), FARC-EP (24%), and state agents (8%). Crucially many innocent people have become victims of enforced disappearance, with no connection to the conflict, who were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is exemplified in the crime of False Positives (Falsos Positivos): victims who were killed by agents of the state, then falsely presented as enemy combatants, thereby justifying their death and covering up the crime. The victims tended to be poor young men, some with learning disabilities, who were lured far from their homes by false promises. In the government’s war against the FARC and other guerrilla groups, the army had put out directives that prioritised body counts above all else. Money, medals and additional holiday were all incentives to military units that achieved high body counts. The result was a twisted system that led soldiers to lure, then kill vulnerable civilians for monetary incentives and more holiday. In February 2025, the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) charged 39 military officials, including generals, for the enforced disappearance and killing of 442 civilians between 2004–2007, which were presented falsely as guerrilla combat deaths.
Current Challenges
Enforced disappearance continues to be perpetrated today, used by illegal armed actors on both sides of the conflict, not just as a weapon of war but to silence human rights defenders, journalists, trade unionists and critics as well as to spread terror. New cases continue to be documented; the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) recorded 1,730 new cases of disappearance between December 2016 and July 2024, translating to an average of one person disappearing every 36 hours.
Currently the phenomenon of enforced disappearance occurs particularly in regions under the control of non-state armed groups and criminal organisations. There are growing concerns over disappearances linked to forced recruitment targeting children and adolescents in these regions. The Committee on Enforced Disappearances (CED), who monitor the implementation of the Convention for the Protection of all Persons against Enforced Disappearance (which provides a legal framework for preventing and investigating enforced disappearances) has called on Colombia to strengthen its search, investigation, and prosecution mechanisms and stressed the need for a comprehensive state policy to combat enforced disappearance.
These armed groups frequently forcibly recruit minors to serve in their ranks as fighters, messengers, or informants. Many of these children disappear with no notice, never to return, and are hidden from state records.
In Cauca, Indigenous and Afro communities created the Intercultural Guard, formed mainly by mothers, to search for youths disappeared or forcibly recruited by armed groups. Since 2020, armed groups have ramped up their recruitment of the region’s children as they have expanded their control of Nasa territory and illicit economies. The intercultural guard represents a grassroots, women-led resistance that combines traditional Indigenous/Afro forms of community defence with new strategies against forced disappearance.
The UN has also reported a sharp increase in disappearances linked to child recruitment and migration routes, particularly in the Darién Gap, Norte de Santander and the island of San Andrés. Migrants, children and forcibly displaced persons are particularly vulnerable without documentation or legal protection. Once disappeared, they can be forcibly recruited into armed groups or human trafficked into the sex trade. In the Darién Gap alone, the IOM documented 536 disappearances between 2014 and 2024.
Implementation of existing legislation
In 2024 Law 2364 (Ley de Mujeres Buscadoras) was passed, which recognises the work of women searchers for the disappeared, but a year has lapsed, and its implementation is still pending. The Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation and Amnesty International’s #SearchingWithoutFear campaign highlight the risks and threats involved in searching for the disappeared and urge the government to implement Law 2364.
Although social organisations highlight the value of Colombia having a law recognising and protecting women seeking refuge, there is concern that the deadlines set for its implementation, after one year, are not being met.
The Unit for the Search for Persons Deemed Missing (UBPD), a state-run group created as part of the 2016 Peace Agreement, is a crucial tool in the search process. It carries out humanitarian and extrajudicial searches and recently launched initiatives such as the “Búsqueda Inversa” (Reverse Search) platform, which aims to match unidentified bodies with the families of the disappeared.
International Day for Victims of Enforced Disappearances – August 30th
The day is observed globally but holds particular significance in Colombia where the ongoing armed conflict that has raged over half a century has had many victims of enforced disappearance. In 2010, the United Nations General Assembly declared this a day to raise awareness of the issue of enforced disappearances around the world and to honour the victims and their families.
ABColombia remembers the victims of enforced disappearance on this day, recognises the incredible courage of those searching for their loved ones, and acknowledges the current challenges that searchers face. We therefore call for the full and rapid implementation of Law 2364 recognising the work and rights of women searchers.
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