Relational Harm: Targeting the Family in War and Oppression

This project will examine the novel concept of ‘relational harm’ (defined in the project as harm that individuals and communities experience through the targeting and control of their intimate relationships). The project will focus on ‘forced separation’ as a specific and topical manifestation of relational harm. While existing research has examined the specific vulnerability of children on their own and the long-term impact of familial separation on minors, little has been written about the experience and impact of forced separation on families and communities left behind. Additionally, less is known about why states carry out forced separation and how and why states target the family during war and counter-insurgency. This interdisciplinary and mixed methods project will map state practices of forced separation and the targeting of youth. It will anchor relational harm in a range of historical contexts and will conduct archival research on longer-standing cases of forced separation and reunification, particularly during the Second World War. Examining the case studies of Sri Lanka, the Rohingya (living in Bangladesh), and Peru, the project will focus on the political, social, and economic legacies of familial separation and the lived everyday experiences and consequences of ‘ambiguous loss’. The project will study the extent to which evolving international law and transitional justice practices address relational harms and forced separation. It will examine legal frameworks on the right to family and family life in relation to forced separation. The project will focus on gendered aspects and legacies of relational harm. Engaging with a wide multidisciplinary literature, the project will examine family as both a realm of meaning and security and as a site of vulnerability and harm. The project will make a significant contribution through its critical examination of family and family life as fundamental to the waging and experience of war.