CAHR resarcher Dr Simon Robins is awarded an ESRC IAA GCRF award

Posted on 13 September 2016

Dr Simon Robins has been awareded an ESRC IAA GCRF award to address the issue of disappearance in Nepal.

Nepal's Commission of Investigation of Enforced Disappeared Persons (CIEDP) has received over 3,000 complaints from families seeking an addressing of the impact of having a relative disappeared during the nation's decade long Maoist insurgency. These families seek not only news about their missing loved ones, and the return of bodies where they are dead, but financial support to cope with the huge impact of disappearance on very poor families and communities. More than that they want that their loved ones are acknowledged and remembered.

Dr Simon Robins of York's Centre for Applied Human Rights has been working with conflict victims in Nepal, and in particular the families of the disappeared, since 2006, including efforts to both understand the impact of and needs generated by the ambiguous loss of a family member and supporting the advocacy of families and victims' groups. Dr Robins has recently received support from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) through their Impact Acceleration Account aimed at addressing global challenges to work in Nepal alongside the CIEDP, to use his research and experience to enhance the Commission's ability to address the issue of disappearance. His secondment to work with the CIEDP will enable the Commission to benefit from his research on the needs of families, and to make recommendations in their final report that advance the addressing of all impacts of disappearance, including through a comprehensive programme of reparation, informed by his empirical work.