Purpose

The International Meeting of Women Searchers aims to provide women searchers from diverse contexts with a safe and trusted space in which to exchange knowledge, experiences, challenges and shared needs through dialogue and mutual trust. To this end, the meeting is conceived primarily as an internal working space, featuring participant-led sessions, training workshops and collaborative knowledge-sharing activities, complemented by public outreach and advocacy initiatives.

The aim is for these exchanges to generate or strengthen alliances, create opportunities for joint action, and develop practical tools that reinforce the efforts of women searchers in the fight against enforced disappearances.

The meeting is specifically designed to bring together women searchers. Although search efforts are not carried out exclusively by women, they often bear a particularly heavy burden in this work. Moreover, the disappearance of a loved one has profound gender-specific impacts. This gathering seeks to deepen the analysis and understanding of these gender dimensions, both in relation to women as victims and as searchers. To this end, it will include discussions based on the General Comment of the Committee on Enforced Disappearances on “The Impact of Enforced Disappearances on Women and Girls.”

While these are the guiding principles of the current call, the meeting’s specific objectives, programme, activities, expected outcomes and follow-up actions will be developed over the coming months through dialogue with participating women and collaborating organizations and institutions. This process will take place through a series of online consultations in advance of the meeting.