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Colombia: The tortuous path of women searching for the victims of enforced disappearance
- According to official figures, the number of victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia could be more than 200 000. And it is mostly women who dedicate their lives to searching for them.
- Organizations of women searchers, such as the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation, are an example of perseverance, but also of the ordeal endured by those who speak out against enforced disappearances and dedicate their lives to searching for their loved ones.
- Amnesty International highlights the approval of Law 2364 of 2024 for protecting the rights of women searchers, and calls on the Colombian state to commit to its implementation.
Bogotá, 3 December 2024. Amnesty International is releasing its report Transforming pain into rights: Risks, threats and attackon women searchers in Colombia** in Bogotá’s Teatro Colón. The report documents the reality experienced by the women who dedicate their lives to searching for the victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia, and the need for society to recognize these women and for the authorities to guarantee their rights, given the serious obstacles they face in demanding truth and justice.
The report has been prepared as part of Amnesty International’s #SearchingWithoutFear campaign, which was launched on 30 August (International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances) throughout the Americas calling for the recognition and protection of women searchers across the continent.
According to the report, the scale of enforced disappearances in Colombia is terrifying. The Unit for the Search for Persons Deemed Missing has identified 111 640 persons victims of enforced disappearance up to 2024. The Truth Commission stated in its Final Report that the number of victims of enforced disappearance between 1985 and 2016 were probably around 210 000, if underreporting is taken into account in a phenomenon that is based on deception and concealment.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, stated that “women have played a leading role in the search for victims of enforced disappearance and in the creation and leadership of organizations of relatives of victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia,” adding that “mothers, wives, sisters and daughters were the ones who suffered the worst impacts of this crime. They were the ones who spoke out against it and made it visible, who took the lead in demanding the right to truth and justice, and who suffered the most severe consequences in the struggle against impunity.”
Women have played a leading role in the search for victims of enforced disappearance and in the creation and leadership of organizations of relatives of victims of enforced disappearance in Colombia […] Mothers, wives, sisters and daughters were the ones who suffered the worst impacts of this crime. They were the ones who spoke out against it and made it visible, who took the lead in demanding the right to truth and justice, and who suffered the most severe consequences in the struggle against impunity.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Risks, threats and attacks faced by women searchers
The report documents the experience of the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation (FNEB), an organization born out of the struggle for truth and justice in the enforced disappearance of Nydia Erika Bautista on 30 August 1987, at the hands of the Colombian Army. The report details the experiences of Yanette Bautista, Nydia Erika’s sister, director and founder of FNEB, and Andrea Bautista, Nydia Erika’s niece, deputy director and head of FNEB’s legal department. Their testimonies are a reflection of those of thousands of women searchers in Colombia.
Women searchers in Colombia suffer stigmatization in public discourse, experience violations of their human dignity, and are discriminated against and have their reputation tarnished as a result of their complaints. They are subjected to physical violence, which in the case of women searchers is of a special nature and causes differentiated damage, as it intersects with gender-based violence, vulnerability to sexual violence, and a continuum of violence against women that permeates their search for the loved ones who have been forcibly disappeared.
Women searchers in Colombia also endure persistent threats, with some having been forced to flee the country and live in exile.In the search for truth and justice following an enforced disappearance, threats, harassment and intimidation are common and systematic.
Information theft and invasion of private spaces are also widespread and undermine the ability of women searchers to do their work and, above all, to preserve the memory of years of searching. Yanette Bautista described it in these terms: “They stole our past and they’re also stealing our future.”
However, women searchers in Colombia suffer consequences that go beyond violence, as they are also particularly vulnerable to impoverishment. According to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, this is a factor of vulnerability to enforced
disappearance, and, following a disappearance, the economic, social and cultural rights of the relatives, loved ones and communities to which the disappeared person belongs are gravely affected.
Finally, one of the most significant problems faced by women seekers is impunity, not only regarding the lack of justice for the vast majority of enforced disappearances that have occurred in Colombia, but also for the violence experienced by those searching for their relatives and loved ones, which is not adequately investigated.
Law on Women Searchers: Hope for the victims
Against this discouraging backdrop, Amnesty International’s report highlights the importance of the approval by the Colombian Congress in June of Law 2364 of 2024, which provides comprehensive recognition and protection for the work and rights of women searching for victims of enforced disappearance in the country. The law offers hope that the search for victims of enforced disappearance will be carried out in safe and dignified conditions.
In its report, Amnesty International presented a methodology for monitoring implementation of the law, focusing on 22 commitments grouped into four main areas: 1) recognizing women searchers and their work and preventing stigmatization, 2) protecting women searchers from attacks and threats, 3) guaranteeing the right to education, housing and health for women searchers and their families, and 4) measures against impunity and for truth.
Amnesty International believes that “Law 2364 of 2024, if properly implemented, has the potential to protect the rights of women searchers and to help settle the Colombian state’s historical debt with them”. Moreover, Colombia could become a benchmark for the Americas, a region where there are many examples of enforced disappearance and of women searching against the odds to find truth and justice.
Organizations such as Amnesty International and the Nydia Erika Bautista Foundation believe that the Colombian state must strive to fulfil the promises it has made to the victims of enforced disappearance, including women searchers. Implementing this law is a good opportunity for moving forward.
The report Transforming pain into rights: Risks, threats and attacks on women searchers in Colombia was launched in Bogotá’s historic Teatro Colón. The event also featured a photo exhibition under the title La búsqueda tiene rostro de mujer (Searching has a woman’s face) and the play La vida de las ausencias (Absences), performed by women searchers of victims of enforced disappearance.
For further information or to arrange an interview, please write to: press@amnesty.org