The Space of Enforced Disappearance

Abstract

Enforced disappearance is a pertinent issue, particularly in the context of Pakistan and many other developing countries. However, the phenomenon of ‘enforced disappearance’ and the presence of a corresponding ‘penal architecture’ characterized by its ‘invisibility’ and ‘unknowability’ has not been given sufficient scholarly attention. Most of the literature available on enforced disappearance describes it as a tool of terror used by the state (or its agents). What is not focused on is the relation that exists between the phenomenon of enforced disappearance and the sovereign in the modern state. I unveil this relationship and explore its implications on our understanding of the concept of sovereignty by formulating arguments derived mainly on Arendt and Agamben’s concepts of ‘appearance’ and ‘bare life’ respectively. I argue and establish that enforced disappearance is an ‘exceptional’ phenomenon that results in the placement of an individual outside the protection of law into the ‘space of exception’ that is a complete and imposed negation of the space of appearance. Furthermore, the relationship between the sovereign and appearance is explored.