- Category: Statements
Manila: Today, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) remembers Masood Janjua, a businessman from Pakistan who was disappeared on 30th July 2005, along with his friend while they were travelling in a bus to Peshawar. Masood’s disappearance 14 years ago was the first recorded and documented case of disappearance in Pakistan that led to a movement against enforced disappearances in the country.
- Category: Statements
Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) stands in solidarity with victims and survivors of torture all across the world today on the occasion of the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
The United Nations condemns torture as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings. Torture is one of the most abhorrent forms of human rights violations. It is aimed at utterly destroying the victim’s sense of dignity.Torture is a contemptible act that causes extreme and irreversible psychological and physical damages on the individual.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
May 26-31, 2019: Every last week of May, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) joins the global community in observing the International Week of the Disappeared. This year, AFAD remembers those who have been forcibly disappeared and strengthens its resolve to create a world free from enforced disappearances.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
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.
- Category: Statements
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.
- Category: Statements
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.
- Category: Statements
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).
- Category: Statements
Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) expresses grief over and strongly condemns the bombing of various churches and hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, 21st April 2019, that led to the killing of at least 290 people and injury of over 400 others.
Out of the 8 blasts that shook Sri Lankan capital Colombo, 3 have been reported from churches, 3 from hotels and 2 from the outskirts of Colombo. The government of Sri Lanka is yet to identify the perpetrators of this gruesome attack although some arrests have been made.