No to Enforced Disappearances! Yes to a World without Disappeared Persons!

A Statement of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances

International Week of the Disappeared

26-31 May 2014

This week, we commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared, first initiated by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) in 1981 and adopted by many organizations of families of the disappeared and civil society organizations world-wide. The commemoration was also meant to step up the campaign against enforced disappearances which were then at their peak during the dark years of the dictatorship in many Latin American countries. Working hard to realize the dream for a world without enforced disappearances is our most important tribute to the desaparecidos.

Ratify the Convention Now to Protect the Right of Asian Peoples not to be Disappeared

AFAD Statement on the 2014th International Week of the Disappeared

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), on the opening day of the International Week of the Disappeared, which falls on the 25th to 30th of May calls on Asian States to sign and ratify the International Convention Against Enforced Disappearance (CAED) to protect the right of Asian peoples from enforced disappearance.

Many States in Asia, which are in situations of conflict and political instability, continue to use enforced disappearance as an instrument to silence political dissent. Victims are either men or women who are political activists, leaders and members of mass organizations or institutions that assert their rights to land, water, jobs, food, housing, education, free expression, and environmental protection among others. In armed conflict situations, even innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire of competing armed forces have been enforcedly disappeared while some are victims of a flawed justice system where short cuts to due process have become the norm such as in the arrest and disappearance of suspected criminals.

AFAD calls on the Thai Army to respect the human rights of its citizens especially the Right Not to be Disappeared

In the light of the declaration of Martial Law in Thailand, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) calls on the Thai Army under the command of Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha to uphold human rights and not subject anyone to enforced disappearance.

Article 1.2. of the International Convention for the Protection of All Person from Enforced Disappearance (Convention) emphasizes that at “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat of war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification for enforced disappearance.”

Reflections and Commentaries On China’s Policy of Fear, Intimidation and Coerced Conformation

Regent Hotel, Munich, Germany -- First and foremost, in the name of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), which is the focal point of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED), I would like to thank the World Uygur Congress, the Society for Threatened Peoples, the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples’ Organizations and the National Endowment for Democracy for inviting me to this conference.  Amidst the many tasks at hand, in the spirit of solidarity, we were honored to accept the invitation.  To be honest, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), a federation of organizations working directly on the issue of enforced disappearances, owing to its limited resources, still has to know more about enforced disappearances of Uyghur people.  Our participation in this conference is hopefully a beginning of a more profound solidarity with the Uyghur people in the years to come.