AFAD 25 Years Video Teaser

This AFAD video teaser is an opening salvo of the yearlong campaign and fight Against Enforced Disappearances and for the Protection, not Persecution, of Human Rights Defenders, across Asia.

a continuing crime
a disappearing act

What's Happening

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.

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) promotes the unprecedented report on the use of torture in Indian administered Kashmir by the Indian armed forces released by the Association of Parents of Disappeared Persons (APDP) and Jammu & Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS) on 20th of May 2019. The report titled, ‘Torture: Indian State’s Instrument of Control in Indian Administered Jammu and Kashmir’ is a very important piece of work.  

The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) urges the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Thailand to withdraw its baseless inquiry ordered against Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit.  Angkhana is a prominent human rights defender who has spoken boldly about human rights issues in Thailand and worked towards protection of human rights in the country.

Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) remembers Jonas Burgos who was forcibly disappeared on the 28th of April 2007 while he was having his lunch at the Hapag Kainan restaurant in Ever Gotesco Mall, Quezon City. The perpetrators are personnel of the Armed Forces of Philippines (AFP).

The Federation

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