Argentine Right to identity: Help us to find you!
by María Florencia Segura, Chargé d´Affairs a.i, Embassy of Argentina
24 May 2021
Last year on March 24th, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Argentina, together with the human rights movement “Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo” and the National Commission for the Right to Identity (CONADI), launched an International Campaign in order to search for Argentine granddaughters or grandsons whose parents were kidnapped and disappeared during the dictatorship that occurred in Argentina between 1973 and 1983. During that period, the military implemented a systematic plan for the abduction of babies (girls and boys) who were separated from their disappeared parents. It is highlighted that their identities were falsified or they were given up for adoption and all traces of their biological families were removed.
These children and babies who were kidnapped and whose identities were stolen are now adults. Since the restoration of democracy and thanks to the efforts and perseverance of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo and different institutions using DNA tests, they could, to date, recover 130 Argentine granddaughters and grandsons who recovered their identity, their history and their biological ties.
I still remember serving my country as a Deputy Consul in our General Consulate in Madrid from 2011 to 2015 and helping in this search for adults that could have been appropriated and whose families of origin in Argentina were looking for them.
This is also related with the right to memory. The right to memory allows not only the victims and their relatives, but society as a whole, to know what happened in those years, as a guarantee that such human rights violations will never be repeated again.
Argentina has also had a leadership in all international organizations such as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the United Nations (UN), in particular in the Human Rights Council of the UN. Argentina has promoted from 2005 onwards in the Human Rights Council different resolutions, co-sponsored by more than 50 countries that enshrined the “right to truth” and also to promote the use of the forensic genetics against human rights violations.
There are still 350 granddaughters and grandsons missing and they might be anywhere in the world. That´s the reason why this campaign is so important and why all our Argentine missions abroad and our Argentine Consuls play a very significant role to guarantee the right to identity.
The Argentine State is looking for all granddaughters and grandsons missing for the restitution of their identity and to the Argentine society as a whole, to prevent that these crimes against humanity will never happen again.
If you have any doubts about your family origin or any information about someone who might be the son or daughter of an Argentine disappeared person, please contact us. Your enquiry will be kept confidential.