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Introduction
Enforced disappearance [1] is a practice based on hiding or destroying the bodies of people, eliminating or concealing all evidence of the crimes committed against the victim and denying all knowledge (Rozema, 2011). The families of the disappeared (from here on “the families”) are left in a desperate situation of needing information about the whereabouts of their loved ones and what has happened to them. Information-seeking, therefore, is always present in the face of this crime, whether from families or the organizations that represent them.
Once largely a tactic of military regimes, enforced disappearance today has become an administrative practice for removing political opponents in democratic countries as well (UNHCHR, 2009). Colombia provides a prime example of enforced disappearances occurring under democratic rule. In Colombia, enforced disappearances occur mainly at the hands of paramilitary groups often with the acquiescence of the State, followed by guerrilla groups, government forces and criminal gangs (Courtney, 2010; UNWGEID, 2006). Colombia's six-decade internal conflict has left roughly 120,000 disappeared persons (UBPD, 2020a; ICMP, 2020) [2]. When a person goes missing, those that search for them are in most cases the immediate family or dependents. Under international law, the families are victims of this crime [3] which allows them to derive the “right to know” their relatives' fate and whereabouts (Ott and Hertig, 2020).
Access to information in Colombia exists precariously within a complex legal prism where freedom of information (FOI) laws have been passed (Law 1755 of 2015), yet human rights documentation held by state institutions is usually inaccessible. Any clash between laws of access is usually resolved by the intelligence community in favour of a restriction of access (Ramírez et al., 2017). In this context, families seek information with the help of support agents such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and family associations, groups or organisations (from here on FOs). The families' search process [4] is immensely problematic due to lack of political will, and logistical and methodological challenges. Most families come from economically deprived backgrounds or locations, often semi-literate, and distrustful of authorities due to a history of abuse and persecution (Courtney, 2010; ICMP, 2020).
Based on in-depth conversational interviews with four family members, four NGO representatives who assist families and document analysis, this article explores the...