



Project Overview
DISACT is a 5 year ERC - Funded Project (consolidator grant: 101086935, 2023-2028). It investigates the logic of the crime of disappearances in repressive and (post)conflict settings. We aim to shed light on the historical emergence and (global) diffusion of the crime, as well as the motives driving violent actors to use disappearances in their repertoire of violence.
Drawing on an in-depth analysis of six crucial cases we blend ethnographic, forensic, legal, and archival evidence to enrich the understanding of one of the most complex human rights violations of our time.
Research Objectives
The selected cases and their relations with the study’s thematic concerns are:
- Colonial origins of the crime in the context of the French counterinsurgency strategy in Algeria (1954-1962)
- Logic of disappearances in conflict settings, based on an ethnographic study of two waves of violence in Cyprus (1963-1974)
- Role of illiberal intergovernmental organizations in the diffusion of transnational disappearances, focusing on the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Eurasia (2010-2020).
- Strategic logic of removal of remains of victims from original grave sites, drawing on forensic data in a comparative analysis of Cyprus, Chile, and Bosnia.

THE TEAM
Dr. Iosif Kovras

Principal Investigator (University of Cyprus)
an expert on post-conflict transitional justice and the impact of disappearances on families
Iosif Kovras is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Cyprus and the Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded project DISACT. Before joining the University of Cyprus he was an Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at City University of London. His research interests include comparative post-conflict transitional justice and human rights. His most recent book titled ‘Grassroots Activism and the Evolution of Transitional Justice‘, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2017 and received Honorable Mention in International Studies Association book award. His work has been published in Comparative Political Studies, West European Politics, Comparative Politics, European Journal of International Relations, Political Geography, Political Psychology, Nations and Nationalism and Cooperation and Conflict, among others. His current research exploring the logic of the crime of disappearances in repressive and (post)conflict settings is funded by a European Research Council Consolidator Grant (2023-2028). Past research projects had received funding by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Leverhulme Trust, the British Academy and other funding bodies.
Dr. Gerasimos Tsourapas

Senior Staff (Glasgow, UK)
an award-winning scholar on transnational repression and migration in the Global South/Middle East.
Gerasimos Tsourapas is Professor of International Relations at the University of Glasgow and the Chair of the Ethnicity, Nationalism, & Migration Studies (ENMISA) Section of the International Studies Association. He is currently the Principal Investigator of a five-year European Research Council Starting Grant project on migration diplomacy. He is the author of The Politics of Migration in Modern Egypt – Strategies for Regime Survival in Autocracies (Cambridge University Press, 2018) and Migration Diplomacy in the Middle East and North Africa – Power, Mobility, and the State (Manchester University Press, 2021).
Professor Kieran McEvoy

Senior Staff (Queen’s University, Belfast)
a renowned legal scholar on transitional justice policies and human rights violations in post-conflict settings.
Kieran McEvoy is the Senator George J Mitchell Chair of Peace, Security and Justice and a Professor of Law and Transitional Justice at Queens University Belfast. He has extensive experience of working on comparative transitional justice projects, having conducted research in over a dozen conflicted or transitional societies. He is also currently working on a 3 year Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship Project on Apologies, Armed Struggle and Dealing with the Past.
Yiannis Trimithiotis

Project Specialist at DISACT project.
Yiannis Trimithiotis studied at the University of Cyprus (2003 – 2007: BA in Political Sciences with a minor in Social Sciences) and at Warwick University (2008 - ΜΑ Social and Political Thought. Following his studies, Yiannis worked, initially, in the field of Communication and Public Affairs (2009 – 2012) and from 2012 onwards he has been active in the field of project management. During his 10+ experience in the field of project management, Yiannis was involved in a variety of projects in terms of size, scope, funding source and academic or other fields. Yiannis is also an active member of civil society in Cyprus.
Dr. Romanos Lyritsas

Post-doctoral researcher at DISACT
He has received his PhD in Social and Political Thought from the University of Sussex. His studies include a BA in Sociology (Panteion University) and an MA in Social and Political Thought (University of Sussex). Between 2016 and 2023 he was working as a researcher at the Committee for Missing Persons in Cyprus (CMP).
Nikandros Ioannidis

Researcher at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona
He holds a master’s degree in Democracy and Comparative Politics from University College London (UCL) and a bachelor’s degree in Communication and Internet Studies from the Cyprus University of Technology (CUT)
Work Packages

OUTPUTS