Addressing Forced Disappearances in The Migrant Community

CHALLENGE

To promote a coordinated regional justice body that could respond to the transnational issue of forced disappearances in Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Mexico.

SOLUTION

Development of a film that could be used in advocacy with government offices, consulates, and other decision making bodies by our clients to promote a transnational body able to coordinate the return of bodies and better address the issue of forced disappearance.

OVERVIEW

At the time of production, a crisis of mass killings of migrants was plaguing Mexico and the northern triangle of Central America. This video tells the story of a community in Honduras that successfully advocated for the return of their family members killed in Mexico, despite the lack of help from government agencies. It was used to push for a transnational body that could help identify bodies and return them to their families as well as to coordinate the transnational issue of forced disappearances during migration among the countries in the region. Such a body would force accountability in each country concerned to ensure justice for victims' families of these crimes.

Impact

Unfortunately, no regional body has been created to coordinate the return of bodies and the situation of forced disappearances in the Northern Triangle and Mexico has only gotten worse.

Within this past decade alone in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and the United States, combined, between 75,000 and 120,000 migrants have disappeared. Governments have failed in their legal responsibility to search for bodies and provide families with compensation. But, this video was used among authorities to advocate for a regional body. As in the video, civil society has taken the lead in addressing this serious problem and advocating for the victim’s families. This video helped to inspire many of those civil society actors.

This project was co-directed by Abby Goldberg  in collaboration with New Media Advocacy Project.