Ensuring Justice and Memory: O7J Communication to the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances and Memorialization
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October 7 Justice Without Borders (O7J) submitted a report to the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances on March 6th, 2026, highlighting the urgent need to address enforced disappearances and promote memorialization, particularly in conflict situations involving non-State armed groups (NSAGs). Representing over 450 victims of the October 7, 2023 attacks (as of April 2026)—including hostages, survivors, the murdered and missing, and bereaved families—O7J works to close the accountability gap for gross human rights violations.
Our submission draws attention to the systematic use of enforced disappearance as a tactic by armed groups, the ongoing challenges of documenting crimes, and the crucial role of memorialization in safeguarding truth, dignity, and justice for victims, as well as the resilience of rule-of-law-based democracies and societies worldwide.
What Are Enforced Disappearances and How Can Memorialization Help Build a Better Future?
Enforced disappearance is recognized in international law as the abduction or detention of individuals, followed by the denial of information about their fate or whereabouts. It places victims outside the protection of the law and violates core rights to life, liberty, and recognition before the law.
In some cases, enforced disappearance overlaps with hostage-taking and torture, particularly when perpetrators deliberately inflict physical or psychological harm while denying access to families. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights recognized enforced disappearance as a continuing crime, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court recognizes that it constitutes a crime against humanity.
Memorialization is a rights-based mechanism, recognized in the field of transitional justice, that ensures victims’ experiences are recognized and preserved. Beyond symbolic gestures, it includes systematic documentation of crimes, public recognition of violations, preservation of evidence, and integration of accurate historical accounts into public discourse. Effective memorialization safeguards dignity, prevents denial or distortion of history, and contributes to post-conflict stabilization and long-term reconciliation.
The October 7 Atrocities: Enforced Disappearances as Crimes Against Humanity
On October 7, 2023, Hamas, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other Palestinian armed groups carried out a widespread or systematic attack across southern Israel, targeting civilians, with knowledge of the attack. Over 1,200 people were killed—including women, children, and the elderly—and nearly 15,000 were injured. Among these, 3,000 were reported missing, and 251 individuals were forcibly abducted, many held incommunicado, tortured, or subjected to sexual violence. A further 330,000 persons were internally displaced immediately after the attack, and today over 85,000 direct victims are recognized by the Israel Social Security.
The scale, extremely sadistic nature, coordination, and systematic scope of these abductions meet the threshold for enforced disappearance under international law and, when considered alongside murder, torture, and other abuses, rise to crimes against humanity. Victims were denied protection under law, and families were left without information. Many were murdered and reported missing due to the intended damage caused by highly corrosive burning material (at 750 degrees Celsius) that perpetrators had armed themselves with in advance, so that it took weeks and months to identify murdered victims, leaving families with only scarce remains to bury and key questions left unanswered.
All this and more highlight the urgent need for memorialization, truth-seeking, and accountability.
O7J’s Role in Memorialization
At O7J, we operationalize memorialization through evidence-based, survivor-centered approaches. By systematically collecting victim accounts of that day and what followed, official records, and independent documentation, we create a verified, legally admissible record of abuses.
Our efforts include direct engagement with survivors and families, collaboration with civil society documentation initiatives, and information requests filed by law on behalf of victims we represent with authorities to implement victims’ right to the TRUTH and to secure evidence for domestic and international accountability processes.
We emphasize that memorialization is inseparable from justice. Beyond preserving memory, it requires robust legal mechanisms to guarantee truth, accountability, and non-recurrence. Fair trials, judicial processes, and effective legal action are central to memorialization because they not only recognize victims’ suffering but also establish authoritative, verifiable records of crimes. By securing accountability, societies confront denial, prevent revisionism, and provide a concrete path toward societal healing.
O7J actively advocates for and supports legal actions to bring perpetrators to justice. Our legal work includes representing victims directly and leading legal action on their behalf for criminal, civil, corporate, state, and non-state actor accountability. We also work to build the evidentiary basis for prosecutions and promote policy and expertise relating to accountability for the atrocities in a broader sense, namely regarding sexual violence constituting international crimes, the digital sphere for accountability and victim rights, and how perpetrators can be prosecuted. In parallel, we conduct outreach with victim communities, making justice more accessible.
Through this dual approach—memorialization and legal advocacy—we aim to make justice tangible for victims, ensuring that their experiences are preserved, recognized by binding judicial decisions, and addressed in a way that prevents future violations.
Recommendations
O7J made several key recommendations to the Working Group:
Recognize that non-State armed groups bear obligations under international law for reparations, memorialization, and victim recognition where they exercise effective control.
Extend responsibility for memorialization beyond the territorial State to include countries of nationality, universal-jurisdiction States, international and regional organizations, and human rights institutions.
Ensure survivor-centered memorialization during ongoing conflict, with secure preservation of evidence, sites, and testimonies while protecting survivors and witnesses.
Collect and preserve evidence of human rights violations systematically, following forensic, gender-sensitive, and internationally recognized standards.
Prioritize survivor safety, dignity, informed consent, and culturally sensitive practices in memorialization efforts.
Balance collective and individual memory through inclusive, participatory processes.
Integrate fair trials and legal accountability as a central pillar of memorialization, guaranteeing truth, justice, and non-recurrence.
Looking Forward
Memorialization is not simply about remembering the past—it is a practical safeguard for justice, truth, and the prevention of future violations. As enforced disappearances against the murdered and the abducted, and hostage-taking, continue to be weaponized by non-State actors globally, preserving the experiences of victims is essential.
O7J’s submission emphasizes that memorialization and legal accountability must go hand in hand. By protecting memory and pursuing justice, we ensure that victims are recognized, perpetrators are held accountable, and societies are better equipped to ensure non-repetition.
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