In Solidarity with the One Billion Rising Global Call to Stop Violence Against Women

The women victims and families of victims of enforced disappearances join the global call to STOP VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN.

Violence against women is pervasive. The increasing incidence of rape, domestic violence, discrimination and other forms of violence among women in both peace and war times must be stopped.

The families of victims and survivors of enforced disappearance, majority of them being women, share the deep emotional toll felt by women victims of violence. They are the wives, daughters, sisters, mothers, mothers-in-law,grandmothers and aunties, who continue to search for their loved ones without certainty of finding them. Some of the aging others died without seeing their sons and daughters alive, or at least their remains if they were killed. Most victims remain disappeared while some were found dead. Very few were fortunate to be found alive and later on freed. Women disappeared who surfaced or were found alive told their stories of sexual assaults and other forms of violence.

In most situations, the disappeared victims were the primary, if not, sole breadwinners. With their disappearance, the burden of providing for the needs of the family who are left behind rests on women. They are mostly left alone to carry on the responsibility of nurturing the family, especially for those who have small children to take care of.

The disappearance deeply affects the emotional, psychological, economic, political and social well-being of women. With limited or absence of professional help to cope with the trauma of disappearance and the sheer responsibility and expectations of society, women have no other choice but to bravely confront these challenges mostly by themselves or with some support of immediate families..

Enforced disappearance is a State-perpetrated violence against women

Enforced disappearance is one of the worst forms of human rights violation. It is a continuing crime that starts when “a person is arrested, detained or his/her liberty deprived and his whereabouts undisclosed. It is perpetrated by agents of the State or persons or groups acting with the authorization, support and consent of the State.It is followed by the refusal of the State “to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or by concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, which places such a person outside the protection of the law.”¹

Most disappearances happened in armed conflict situations or in countries with ongoing struggles for freedom and democracy. Majority of the disappeared victims are men.Women victims are vulnerable to more abuses, such as rape among others. Their bodies became instruments of war.

Survivors of enforced disappearance and their families receive little attention and assistance from government to address its psycho-emotional, economic, social and political impacts. They have to struggle for it.

In the Philippines, families of the disappeared, many of whom are women lobbied for more than 16 years for the Philippine government to enact a law against enforced disappearance that was finally approved and signed on 21 December 2012. In Thailand, their campaign for reparation gained some inroads. The government provided THB 100,000.00 (US$ 3,355.70) to some victims from Southern Thailand. They now have a Committee for Compensation of People Affected by Unrest in the Southern Border Provinces, which recommended that Government pay reparation to several cases of enforced disappearances from January 2004 to 30 September 2011.²

In Nepal, relatives of more than 1,300 disappeared have been pressuring their government to enact into a law the bill on enforced disappearance.In Indonesia, lobby efforts are being intensified for the administration to make good its promise of ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons Against Enforced Disappearance.

Enforced disappearance renders women more vulnerable to exploitation and marginalization

“In societies where gender-based discrimination in laws and policies hinders the full realization of the human rights of women and limits their autonomy and participation in aspects of public and political life, the social and economic impact of disappearances is felt more strongly, it renders women and their children more vulnerable to exploitation and marginalization”.(Deputy Commissioner for Human Rights Kyung-wha Kang).³

In South Asia for instance, there are women who are considered “half-widows” and could not claim the benefits and pieces of property left behind by their disappeared husbands due to absence of necessary legal documents such as death certificates.

Some of the women who have been brave enough to continue their search experience harassments and other forms of marginalization. SandyaEknelygoda of Sri Lanka has to endure threatening calls in her search for her journalist-husband, Prageeth. She eventually lost her employment but persists on her demand for justice, despite the economic difficulties and responsibility of raising her two sons.

Majority of the women in Asian countries with repressive governments such as in Sri Lanka, in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir, are in more difficult situations. Enforced disappearance is continually happening and their governments continue to defy local as well as international pressures. In these countries, too, discrimination of women is deeply embedded.The Indian caste system is an example.

The struggle for justice, reparation, memory and guarantees for non-recurrence is still a long way for majority of the relatives and families of victims of enforced disappearance. But it gets inspiration from the strength of other women victims of violence.

Today, they join the One Billion Women Rising in their global call to STRIKE, DANCE and RISE! DEMAND STATE ACCOUNTABILITY for the increasing violence against women!

Signed and authenticated by:

MUGIYANTO
Chairperson

MARY AILEEN BACALSO
Secretary-General

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¹Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. www2.ohcr.org

²Justice for Peace Foundation, Enforced Disappearances in Thailand, May 2012. http://justiceforpeace.org

³Geneva Institute for Human Rights, http://gihr.org/en/news/2012/12/18/