By Laura Huttunen

This book examines human disappearances in various contexts, ranging from enforced disappearances under oppressive governments and during armed conflicts to disappearing undocumented migrants and, finally, to people who go missing under more everyday circumstances in the Global North. The book argues that a missing person is always an anomaly in relation to the social and cultural order, and every disappeared person disturbs the normal flow of social life in families and communities, often also the smooth working of state bureaucracies. The book analyses both the circumstances that make some people disappear and the variety of responses that disappearances give rise to; the latter include projects focused on searching for the missing and identifying unidentified dead bodies, as well as political projects that call for accountability for disappearances. Moreover, the book examines more symbolic forms or reappearance, including museums, memorials, artworks, ghosts and spirits. Empirical examples range from Argentina to Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Mediterranean, Finland, Poland and beyond. Departing from this diversity, the book provides a theoretical frame within which to think about disappearances across cultural, political and geographical variety.

Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press, 2025. 199p.

By the Human Rights Watch

The 46-page report, “‘We Will Find You,’” is a rights-centered analysis of how governments are targeting dissidents, activists, and political opponents abroad, through surveillance, abductions, and digital attacks.

The Human Rights Watch, February 22, 2024, 46 page

By Human Rights Watch

The 104-page report, “Punished for Seeking Change: Killings, Enforced Disappearances and Arbitrary Detention Following Venezuela’s 2024 Election,” documents human rights violations against protesters, bystanders, opposition leaders, and critics during post-electoral protests and the months that followed. It implicates Venezuelan authorities and pro-government groups, known as colectivos, in widespread abuses, including killings of protesters and bystanders; enforced disappearances of opposition party members, their relatives, and foreign nationals; arbitrary detention and prosecution, including of children; and torture and ill-treatment of detainees.

Human Rights Watch, April 30, 2025, p. 104

By Human Rights Watch

Following the July 2024 presidential elections, electoral authorities in Venezuela announced that Nicolas Maduro had been re-elected president, despite substantial evidence to the contrary. When people took to the streets to demand a fair counting of votes, Venezuelan authorities responded with brutal repression. At least 24 protesters and bystanders were killed and over 2,000 people were detained in connection with post-electoral protests. Punished for Seeking Change documents human rights violations committed against protesters, bystanders, opposition leaders, and critics in the post-electoral protests and the months that followed. It implicates Venezuelan authorities and pro-government armed groups, known as “colectivos,” in widespread abuses, including the killing of protesters and bystanders, enforced disappearances of opposition party members and foreign nationals, arbitrary detention and prosecution of children and others, and torture and ill-treatment of detainees. With 8 million Venezuelans abroad, the rights crisis in Venezuela remains arguably the most consequential in the Western Hemisphere. Governments should support accountability efforts for these grave human rights violations, call for the release of people arbitrarily detained, and expand access to asylum and other forms of international protection for Venezuelans fleeing repression.

New York: HRW, 2025. 109p.