Special issue on forced separation

Our first two articles were published from our Special Issue on ‘Forced Separation’ with the International Journal of Human Rights. The special issue is coedited by Rebekka Friedman, Fionnuala Ní Aoláin and Diana Florez. This interdisciplinary collection examines the extent to which forced family separation can be seen as a distinct and freestanding harm. It covers a range of cases of family separation, including enforced disappearances; child taking; slavery; and contexts of migration and deportation. The Special Issue examines when and why family separation occurs in different contexts; the legacies of separation for children, families, and affected communities; and the extent to which family separation has been addressed in practice (including in global, regional, and domestic spheres). The Special Issue frames separation as central to war and oppression and examines how it serves as a deliberate strategy as well as a byproduct of conflict, structural injustices, and violence.

Congratulations to Professor of Pediatrics at UCLA, Elizabeth Barnett, for her newly published article, 'Trauma, identity, and healing: families’ experiences with DNA-based reunification in post-war El Salvador'. The article looks at DNA testing as a reunification tool for children who disappeared during the El Salvadorian civil war. It examines reunification particularly after international adoption as a complex and long-term process.

Congratulations to Andreas Kleiser, Chiara Bellini and Helena Szczupak from the International Commission for Missing Persons on their article, 'Safeguarding the rights of wrongly separated families as a result of disappearances'. The article examines family cohesion and identity as fundamental to human dignity. It provides an overview of jurisprudence of Inter-American, European, and the African human rights systems to investigate how disappearances directly impact family members.

Other articles in the collection will be coming out soon through the journal’s online first platform.