END ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES, END SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC INJUSTICE!

10 December 2015 - On this 67th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) condemns all forms of State violence that are systematically committed against peoples all over the world. The global structure that perpetuates wealth and progress for the few comes at the price of the suffering of millions— of peoples displaced, dispossessed and made disposable.   On this occasion, AFAD vows to work fully for the promotion and protection of human rights, with emphasis on the right not to be subjected to enforced disappearances.

Tens of thousands of mothers, fathers, wives, husbands, children, sisters, brothers and friends have been snatched away from their loved ones and from their lives since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) reports of 42,889 active cases it has received from 84 states, a number that only foreshadows thousands of other cases that have not yet been reported.   This global malady had urged the United Nations to adopt the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances and to officially recognize August 30 as the International Day of the Disappeared.

2015 October, Odhikar Human Rights Monitoring Report

Odhikar believes that ‘democracy’ is a form of the State and that freedom and human rights are its foundations. Democracy is not merely a process of electing a ruler; it is the result of the peoples’ struggle for inalienable rights, which become the fundamental premise to constitute the State. Therefore, the individual freedoms and democratic aspirations of the citizens – and consequently, peoples’ collective rights and responsibilities - must be the foundational principles of the State.

Press statement on all souls’ day

Joint Statement

Families of Victims of Involuntary Disappearances (FIND)

Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD)

English Version

With no tombs or columbaria to visit, the families of the disappeared who are members of FIND gather every year on All Souls’ Day at the Bantayog ng mga Desaparecido at the Baclaran Church grounds to pray, offer flowers, light candles, and share memories of the sterling lives and martyrdom of their missing loved ones.

Today, these poignant memories are mocked and dishonored by Bongbong Marcos who insists that the best administration was that of his father’s as he glosses over the existence of some 100,000 victims of human rights violations during the Marcos regime. Among these, FIND has documented 882 victims of enforced disappearance, with the number of undocumented cases believed to be much higher.

The Silver Lining of Justice in Sri Lanka

Statement: Sri Lanka’s National Day of Disappeared Persons

27 October 2015 – Today, marks the 24th year of commemoration of the National Day of the Disappeared Persons in Sri Lanka. Mostly from the Northern and Eastern regions, families and friends of those forcibly disappeared during the country’s armed conflict have been gathering before the Monument for the Disappeared at Raddoluwa Junction to remember their disappeared relatives and demand accountability from the government for its past crimes.

The tradition of commemorating the victims of enforced disappearances can be traced to the killings of H.M Ranjith and M. Lionel that took place in the Raddoluwa Junction in 1989. Families, friends and supporters of the two began to assemble in the junction in October 27, 1991. From a group of seventeen (17), the crowd expanded over the years.