- Category: Statements
Easter Sunday is very important for Christians all over the world as it signifies the celebration of Christ’s victory over death. The Easter Story is a reminder of the sacrifices made by Christ when He gave His body and His blood to wash clean the faults and shortcomings of the world and of His triumphant resurrection.
- Category: Statements
24 March 2018 - The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) commemorates the International Day for the Right to Truth Concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims. We are witness to a world where violation of human rights in the form of summary executions, enforced disappearances and torture occur routinely and those who seek justice are persecuted, threatened and executed. Yet, there are countless number of people who raise their voice to seek justice and to protect the rights of others.
- Category: Statements
20 March 2018
To our friends and colleagues in KontraS,
Warm greetings on your 20th Anniversary!
On this occasion, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) salutes the women and men of KontraS who worked ard to establish the organization and to develop it to full maturity as the most spected human rights organization in Indonesia. The human rights activism of our sisters and brothers in KontraS is making a huge difference in the lives of victims of human rights violations in this vast Southeast Asian archipelago, whose dark history is marred with the blood of innumerable victims.
- Category: Statements
As the world celebrates the International Women’s Day, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) pays tribute to all women who have been relentlessly struggling for truth and justice. AFAD remembers the women victims of enforced disappearance – those who have been forcibly disappeared as well as those whose lives have been gravely affected by the phenomenon of enforced disappearance even as they continue to fight bravely against it.
- Category: Statements
Sowing Disrespect,HinderingJustice: AFAD Condemns India for Prohibiting APDP to Pay its Respects to Atta Mohammed Khan
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) expresses its utmost concern for the safety of human rights defenders and the situation of human rights in Indian-‐occupied Kashmir. On the 4th of February 2018, a team led by Advocate Parvez Imroz along with activists, family members of the disappeared, and lawyers were detained at Boniyar Police Station in Baramulla, district of North Kashmir.
AFAD Holds Congress in Sri Lanka, Scores Asian Governments’ Tepid Response to Enforced Disappearance
- Category: Statements
PRESS STATEMENT
17 December 2017
"As enforced disappearance respects no age, gender, race, creed, religion, or ideology and is committed in a borderless geography, AFAD consolidates its 14 member organizations across Asia in Bangladesh, Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Timor-Leste, and South Korea, and individual members in Laos and Switzerland. AFAD rallies its members to intensify their collective struggle to protect the absolute right not to be subjected to enforced disappearance in solidarity with all the peoples of Asia and the whole world."
- Category: Statements
Today marks the fifth anniversary of the enforced disappearance of Sombath Somphone, a staunch Lao civil society leader and community development activist who advocated for rural community-based development, especially among the youth. On the fateful evening of December 15, 2012, Sombath was abducted by policemen in Vientiane. Evidence obtained of Sombath’s abduction was caught on CCTV, where it showed that he was stopped and taken away on a pickup truck in front of the police station. Laotian authorities immediately denied any involvement in his abduction, which speaks volumes of the palpable culture of impunity in the country that is felt significantly to this day.
- Category: Statements
MESSAGE TO
THE ASIAN FEDERATION AGAINST INVOLUNTARY DISAPPEARANCES
Paris, 6 December 2017. The Lao Movement for Human Rights wishes success to the 6th Congress of The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances.
Enforced disappearance is a violent and unacceptable violation to our basic rights and an infringement of international law. It is an odious crime that deeply and painfully affects the victim’s close ones who desperately seek information and find themselves in front of walls of denial, silence and indifference from the authorities. Too often, it involves the acquiescence or complicity of state officials and instills fear within civil society and human rights community in the country.
