Paper short abstract:

This article explores the tension between kinship, individual desires, and the state politics surrounding the search for the Polish missing in Poland and abroad. It asks how the search for the missing relates to the rights to freedom and autonomy in liberal democracies.

Paper long abstract:

Researchers of enforced disappearances, which result from political repressions and state violence, argue that people cannot just “disappear” and that the families have a “right to know” where their missing are. The families’ “right to know” is also ensured by international law. However, in liberal democracies, most disappearances happen in more mundane circumstances and the reasons for disappearance are often unknown. Some people are presumed to disappear voluntarily, wanting to escape from their families and communities. Considering that liberty and personal autonomy are fundamental constitutional rights in democracies, the key question becomes whether the search for a given person is morally and legally justified. Do people have a right to disappear and who has a right to know about their whereabouts? Should the state help the families to search for their missing kin and does the search interfere with people’s right to self-constitution? This paper answers these questions by focusing on the tensions between kinship, individual desires, and the state politics surrounding the search for the Polish missing in Poland and abroad. I interpret the ensuing tensions as a clash between the missing as a legally defined “abstracted individual” whose kin have no bearing over his/hers individual rights, and the missing as a relational person who disappears in relation as a family member (Edkins 2011). The article is based on ethnographic research conducted in Poland and the Netherlands, offline and online, between 2020-2022.