The “First Asian Conference on Psychosocial Support in
the Search for Involuntarily Disappeared, in the Struggle for Truth and
Justice and in Exhumation Processes,” co-organized by the Asian Federation
Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) as a regional partner of
Equipo de Estudios Comunitarios y Acción Psicosocial (ECAP) - Team of
Community Studies and Psychosocial Action from Guatemala and Gemeinnützige
Entwicklungszusammenarbeit GmbH (GEZA) - Non- rofit Development Assistance
Association from Austria, will be held in October 2009. It will be part of
an international conference cycle that began in Guatemala in 2007 and will
culminate with the Second International Conference that will be conducted
in Bogotá, Colombia in May 2010.
This regional conference, which will also be convened
in Africa and the Middle East, aims to present, share,
discuss and learn from the experiences in the different
Asian countries – in the various political, historical, social
and cultural contexts – in the range of psychosocial
support for families of the disappeared.
A tool to share and compare the experiences is the
proposed Minimum Standards in psychosocial work with
families of the disappeared and in exhumation processes.
The document, which is a validation form that hopes to
achieve an international consensus, originated in Latin
America. An integral part of the preparations for the Asian
Conference is a discussion of these proposed standards
in the Asian context. Hence, preparations for the said
conference necessitate the gathering of information about
the practice of psychosocial support and the situation of
families of involuntary disappeared in general, taking into
consideration commonalities as well as differences.
The target objective is to collectively formulate an
Asian position that will be presented to an international
audience in Bogotá.
Why A Conference on Psychosocial Support?
Some may ask why so many conferences? Wouldn’t
it be better to use the limited resources to work on the
subject and help the families directly?
One of the founding ideas regarding this initiative
was a quite related question: How could we use our limited
resources better? The most evident answer might be by
learning to improve our work based on the successes
and difficulties others experienced in similar situations.
Keeping this in mind, the planned conference offers the
space to share and learn and to intensify the collaboration
within the Asian community.
Making the Conference Results Available
In order not to lose the results of the validation of the
minimum standards, the conference results will be made
available to as many organizations and individuals as
possible. Thus, a book, which would compile the varying
situations in the different Asian countries, will be published.
The idea is that the people working with the families, the
“local experts,” will come together and write an article
about the situation of enforced disappearance in their
country and the different forms (religious, psychological,
ritual, etc.) of support for families of the disappeared that
are being practiced.
The main objective of the whole project is to show
the range of strategies and approaches to help families of
involuntary disappeared people help themselves in coping
up with the pain and live a self-determined life again. The
Asian region has rich and valuable experiences to impart.
If you are interested and want more information on
the event or the project itself or share your experiences
in the field of psychosocial support, contact the AFAD
(afad@surfshop.net.ph) or Katharina Lauritsch (mk.
lauritsch@gmx.at), the officer in charge with organizing
the conference.
