AFAD Seeks the Truth about Sombath Somphone

4th December 2018

Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) expresses concern over the enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone and the continued denial of the Lao government in bringing forth the truth about him.

Sombath Somphone was a community development worker from Laos who was disappeared on 15th of December 2012 in Vientiane. Since then, the family of Sombath has been running a campaign called ‘Return Sombath Campaign’ to know the truth about what happened to him and seek justice from the Lao government.

December 2018 Issue: The Voice

Twenty-one years ago, the Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND) in the Philippines, together with representatives from different regions (Latin America, Africa, Asia), conceptualized the formation of a regional federation to fight against the phenomenon of enforced disappearances in Asia.A year later, FIND sought consultations with the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) in Indian-Administered Jammu and Kashmir and Organization of Parents and Family Members of the Disappeared (OPFMD) in Sri Lanka in 1998.

AFAD Commemorates Human Rights Day

Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) commemorates the Human Rights Day, observed each year on the 10th of December. This day this year marks 70 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and thus makes the day of greater significance.

This day is an opportunity to assess the situation of human rights across the world and to ascertain how hard the States must work to ensure basic human rights for every individual. Unfortunately, in Asia, the situation of human rights has been deteriorating with repressive regimes coming to power, institution of repressive state policies, institutionalized impunity for perpetrators of human rights violations and persecution of human rights defenders.

AFAD remembers Bangladeshi Diplomat Maroof Zaman on the 1st Anniversary of his Disappearance

Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) remembers Maroof Zaman, a former diplomat from Bangladesh who was disappeared one year ago today.

Maroof Zaman is the former Bangladeshi ambassador to Qatar and Vietnam, Counsellor of the Bangladesh High Commission in the United Kingdom, former Additional Secretary of the Foreign Ministry and a retired Bangladesh Army Captain. Although he has never been politically active or charged with any offence, he was recalled from his last post as soon as the incumbent government of Bangladesh came to power, and was later forcibly retired.