Healing the Unseen Scars: Mental Health Responses to Enforced Disappearance

In observance of the UN International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the British Bangladeshi Psychiatric Association (BBPA) is organising its annual conference to raise awareness of this critical mental health issues surrounding Enforced Disappearance

The conference aims to highlight the long-term psychological, social, and legal challenges arising from enforced disappearances—an issue affecting across the globe

The programme will feature expert perspectives from psychiatry, international law, human rights, and policy. All sessions will be conducted in person, and only select speakers from overseas will be joining via video link. Audience participation is limited to in-person attendees.

We are pleased to confirm an exceptional line-up of speakers, including:

• Dr Lade Smith, President, Royal College of Psychiatrists

• Prof Grazyna Baranowska, Vice-Chair, UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances

• Dr Thomas MacManus, Senior Lecturer in State Crime, Queen Mary University of London

• Professor Andrew Forrester, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry, Cardiff University

•. Prof Piyal Sen. Chair of the Special Committee on Human Rights at the Royal College of Psychiatrists

• Dr Nabila Idris, Member, Bangladesh Commission of Inquiry on Enforced Disappearances

• Dr Mohammad Shamsul Ahsan, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Bangladesh Medical University

• Dr Nancy Catherine Colimon Ardila, CEO, Mexican Consortium of Neuropsychopharmacology (MCNP)

• Dr Suhana Ahmed, Deputy Chief Medical Officer & Consultant Psychiatrist, West London NHS Trust

• Dr Anis Ahmed, Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist & Clinical Lead in Psychiatry at Aston Medical School.

•Dr Tayeem Pathan, Consultant Psychiatrist & MBT Practitioner, Surrey & Borders NHS Partnership Trust

Who Should Attend?

Tickets are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis—especially the discounted ones for trainee doctors and undergraduate students. In previous years, these discounted tickets sold out within weeks, so we encourage you to book early to avoid disappointment.

• Psychiatrists , psychologists and allied mental health professionals
• Human rights lawyers and legal advocates
• Social workers , anthropologists and trauma therapists
• Policy makers and civil society leaders
• Students and researchers in global health and justice

Why Attend?

• Learn from international experts in psychiatry, law, and human rights
• Hear from frontline practitioners addressing post-conflict mental health
• Understand how state violence leaves long-term psychological scars—often invisible and unspoken
• Discover trauma-informed models of care and transitional justice responses