ABSTRACT
Enforced disappearance creates pain, financial hardship, and unresolved grief for the families left behind: they, too, are victims in need of care. International human rights law, as incarnated in the Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance, defines families, but does not frame how they can be supported psychosocially. With no evidence or proof about the whereabouts or fate of the disappeared, those people left behind find themselves in a limbo of confusion and uncertainty. The theory of ambiguous loss provides a psychosocial map for understanding and intervening with the individuals, families, and communities left behind after disappearance. As they wait for an answer, a balance is urgently needed between psychosocial support and advocacy for truth and justice. The tension is not between human rights and family survival, but rather, seeking to ensure both support for the latter early on and delivering the former in due time. The framework of ambiguous loss is effective for understanding this here-to-fore unnamed loss and for shaping interventions for building the resilience to live with it, as long as the ambiguity lasts.
