Descrizione del progetto
Uno studio etnografico sul lavoro della Commissione internazionale per i dispersi
Ogni anno, milioni di persone in tutto il mondo risultano disperse a causa di conflitti, abusi dei diritti umani, disastri, criminalità organizzata, migrazione irregolare e altri motivi. La Commissione internazionale per i dispersi lavora insieme a governi, organizzazioni della società civile e altri gruppi in ogni angolo del globo per affrontare il problema delle persone che risultano scomparse. Da tempo questo ente è coinvolto in operazioni di scavo effettuate in migliaia di fosse comuni e cimiteri clandestini e promuove l’applicazione di avanzate tecniche forensi per localizzare e recuperare le persone disperse. Il progetto MissingFamilies, finanziato dall’UE, condurrà uno studio etnografico sul lavoro della Commissione internazionale per i dispersi e analizzerà le iniziative della società civile presso la sua sede, a L’Aia, e in Messico, Colombia e Iraq. L’attenzione sarà rivolta alla «circolazione» di esperienze, conoscenze e solidarietà a livello locale.
Obiettivo
If people go missing, their families are left with big questions about someone’s status as being dead or alive. While families of missing persons are dependent on forensic experts and expertise to have their kin identified after mass fatality incidents (MFIs) like war or political violence, forensic experts cannot do their job without support of families. However, due to technical, political or financial constraints, forensic experts and their services often are unavailable in the wake of MFIs. In such circumstances, civil society organizations like family associations become advocates for forensic interventions or initiate forensic activities themselves. While local experience and knowledge are highly relevant for the global problem of missing persons, those experiences hardly flow from the local to elsewhere, including the global. In the proposed project MissingFamilies, I ethnographically attend to the work of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) in The Hague by studying ICMP’s civil society initiatives at its Hague headquarters and in Mexico, Colombia and Iraq. Attending to civil society programs and stakeholders in the three mentioned countries, I focus on the “circulation” of local experiences, knowledges and solidarity to elsewhere, including the global. Seeking inspiration from Science and Technology Studies, and actor-network theory in particular, MissingFamilies contributes to empirical understanding of the global problem of missing persons and their surviving families; it adds new theoretical and conceptual vocabulary to the materialities of absence and presence; it furthers the notions of circulation and solidarity in the wake of MFIs; and provides opportunities to improve future MFI operations.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinatore
1012WX Amsterdam
Paesi Bassi