AFAD Statement on the Disappearance of Human Rights Defender Sombath Somphone

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) strongly condemns the disappearance of human rights defender and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee Mr. Sombath Somphone.

The incident occurred on 15 December 2012. Mr. Sombath was driving in Thadeu Road in Vientiane where his vehicle was stopped by two policemen. He was brought to a police post and questioned. Soon after, an unidentified man arrived on the scene and later on drove Sombath’s vehicle away. The incident which was captured in a video recording from a closed-circuit television revealed that a white pick-up truck arrived on the scene and a group of men escorted Sombath to the truck and drove away.

Anti-Enforced Disappearance Law: A Precious Christmas Gift to All Filipino Desaparecidos

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) joins the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearance (FIND) and other human rights groups in the Philippines in jubilation for Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III’s signing into law the Republic Act No. 10350, otherwise known as the Anti-Enforced Disappearance Act of 2012.

AFAD Solidarity Statement on the Launch of a Research Report: Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir

11 December 2012 - The Asian Federation Against Enforced Disappearances (AFAD), a regional federation of human rights organizations working directly on the issue of enforced disappearances lauds the attached release of the research “Alleged Perpetrators – Stories of Impunity in Jammu and Kashmir,” painstakingly undertaken by the International Peoples’ Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Indian-Administered Kashmir [IPTK] and the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons [APDP].

Respect the Right NOT to be Disappeared!

AFAD Statement on the International Human Rights Day 2012

Today as the world commemorates the 64th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) joins the families of the disappeared and other human rights groups in the call for the full respect of the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearances.

However, 64 years after the adoption of the UDHR in Paris, France, thousands of people around the world are still forcibly made to disappear by their own governments and are placed in illegal and unknown detention centers while their families are left with no means to seek truth and demand for justice.