Samuel Segura Cobos (MDEV ’13, International History PhD candidate) has been selected to receive funding from Davis Projects for Peace 2015.

In the context of high levels of violence and grave human rights abuses in Mexico, Samuel Segura Cobos’ project, “We Will Never Forget: Accompanying Families of Missing People”, aims to help the relatives of more than 23,000 victims of enforced disappearances since 2006, and about 1,200 cases from the period known as the “Dirty War” in Mexican history (1960s-1980s).

The project focuses on the creation of a technological platform to regularly disseminate cases through social media. This will help families of missing people in their fight for justice with Mexican authorities and to build global solidarity networks to support their struggle. The information will also be published in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Concerned people will be able to receive missing person case information on a regular basis via social media. on a regular basis. Calls to action and messages to the authorities responsible for the investigation will also be available for distribution. These concrete actions will be complemented with audiovisual material including the testimonies of family members of missing people from three Mexican states.

The platform will be launched at a public event on or around 10 May, 2015. This is Mother’s Day in Mexico and thousands of mothers of missing people will demonstrate in cities across the country to demand justice and remember their missing sons and daughters.

For implementation, the project relies on a core team of human rights experts from international organisations based in Mexico, Resonar, a grassroots human rights association, and the cooperation of well-established NGOs.

Arturo Avila and Daniel Zapico, members of Resonar, explained that the inspiration for the project goes back to a Guatemala trip. During the voyage, Arturo was deeply touched by walls covered with portraits of missing people, victims of the Guatemalan Civil War from the 1960s to the 1980s. “For the communities and families affected,” Daniel explains, “these walls served as memorials that would inspire them to continue their struggle for justice. The idea of this project is to replicate a virtual remembrance space.”

For Samuel, the one-year financial support from the Davis Foundation is encouraging as the project fosters the promotion of a culture of peace, human rights and citizen empowerment amidst a very difficult social environment in Mexico.

Moreover, it is an opportunity to bring together his past work in human rights activism in Mexico and International Geneva, as well as what he learnt from his studies at the Graduate Institute, to help those affected by grave human rights abuses. However, he expects that as the project begins to yield results, the challenge will be to ensure the operation of the project in the years to come.

If you are interested to engage with the project or would like to obtain more information, please contact  nuncaolvidaremos2015@gmail.com