Please check all those activities organized by the Victims Unit, other State entities and different social organizations to commemorate the International Day of victims of forced disappearance.

Next Tuesday, August 30, Colombia will join the commemoration of the International Day of the Victims of Forced Disappearance, a date to honor the memory of 46,204 missing people because of the internal armed conflict. The Register of Victims also recognizes 117,242 families of these as indirect victims.  

In more than twenty departments, the Unit for Victims will join activities led by social organizations, which will make a call to the society on the importance of searching for their loved ones.  

This commemoration will have a special significance for the long struggle of the families, since the announcement of the final agreement reached by the national government and the FARC-EP to end internal armed conflict for decades.

"Relatives of the disappeared are the clearest example of the search for victims for truth. Knowing what happened and why it happened is crucial for those affected by the conflict. In the Victims Unit, our mission is to accompany them to cope with the pain," said Alan Jara, director of the entity. 

Enforced disappearance has touched mainly men (88% of the total), mainly in the departments of Antioquia, Meta, Valle, Cesar, Caquetá and Putumayo. 2002 was the period with the highest number of enforced disappearances. Thereafter, the occurrence of these events was decreasing, from 14,740 direct and indirect casualties in 2002 to 31 victims registered in 2015. 

The accompaniment to the relatives of the disappeared

The Congress of the Republic approved in 2010 the Law 1408, to pay tribute to the victims of the crime of enforced disappearance and adopt measures for their location and identification. A year later, the Victims Law established the importance of "contributing to the search for the missing and collaborating to identify bodies and their subsequent burial, according to family and community traditions, through the competent bodies for this purpose." 

Since then, it has carried out various measures, such as support in the delivery of remains to more than 1,800 families with victims of forced disappearance and murder in the country. Including those produced are counted after seeking agreement on missing persons announced last October at the talks in Havana. 

In addition, the Victims Unit accompanied dozens of symbolic actions of commemoration in memory of the disappeared and their loved ones. On the other hand, more than 2,000 families of missing persons in the context of the conflict have participated in the 'emotional recovery strategy at the group level' led by the Unit. 

For more information, please visit our version in Spanish.