Civil Society Joint Alternative Report on Bangladesh Submitted to the Committee against Torture

67th CAT session (22 July – 9August 2019)

Joint submission by: Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC); Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD); Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUMASIA); FIDH - International Federation for Human Rights; Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights; Odhikar; World Organization Against Torture (OMCT)

AFAD Commemorates the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of torture all across the world today on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The United Nations condemns torture as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings. Torture is one of the most abhorrent forms of human rights violations. It is aimed at utterly destroying the victim’s sense of dignity.Torture is a contemptible act that causes extreme and irreversible psychological and physical damages on the individual.

AFAD Observes the International Week of the Disappeared, 2019

May 26-31, 2019: Every last week of May, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) joins the global community in observing the International Week of the Disappeared. This year, AFAD remembers those who have been forcibly disappeared and strengthens its resolve to create a world free from enforced disappearances.

Odhikar and AFAD Commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared

Dhaka/Manila, 26 May 2019: The International Week of the Disappeared is observed in many countries every last week of May. In commemorating this remarkable week, Odhikar and AFAD remember and pay tribute to victims of enforced disappearance and their families across the globe, including Bangladesh. Like many countries in Asia, enforced disappearances have almost become a regular phenomenon in Bangladesh, and a highly visible and worrying number of enforced disappearances have been committed. A large number of victims of enforced disappearance are political activists belonging to the opposition parties. Some are student activists, non-partisan critical voices, intellectual figures, academics, and journalists. Some return alive, many never at all.