During the political violence of the Mexican Dirty War of the 1970s hundreds of people that had been considered internal enemies were disappeared by the military. Families of the disappeared started searching for them, organized in victims associations on a local, national and transnational level, demanded truth and justice and became important human rights actors in the Mexican transition period since the year 2000. Transitional justice instruments were implemented by the government to respond to victims’ demands, punish the perpetrators and reconcile the divided country. But within these political processes the transitional frictions (Hinton 2010) between global norms and local realities with regards to constellations of power became visible: the claims of the victims were not fulfilled due to e.g. the important role of the Mexican military within the discourse of National Security, the culture of impunity and the continuing political violence against opponents. Furthermore conflicts emerged between heterogeneous victims groups on a local level due to different transitional justice programs. The question is now: Can the implementation of global norms resolve local conflicts and do justice to victims groups? Using the anthropological concept of transitional frictions (Hinton 2010) this presentation will show discrepancies between local practices and global norms and the social, cultural and political dynamics that can result in new conflicts due to transitional justice processes. The presentation is based on an empirical case study focusing on the victims of enforced disappearance in Mexico. The paper will describe the agency of victims within their fight for rehumanization of disappeared family members. It will argue that only through integration and recognition of local needs of the affected groups, transitional justice mechanisms can approach the aim that they are theoretically designed for: the rehumanization of victims after dehumanizing violent conflicts.
