- Category: Statements
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and Odhikar
Manila, Dhaka; 1 November 2021: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) and Odhikar strongly condemn the police raid on the house of Hajera Khatun, the founder of Mayer Daak, a network of families and relatives of disappeared persons; and the arrest of people gathered at a prayer session on 31 October 2021.
- Category: Statements
A Joint Statement by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Mayer Daak and Odhikar on the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, 2021
Manila/Dhaka, 30 August 2021: AFAD, Mayer Daak and Odhikar pay tribute to victims of enforced disappearances and stand in solidarity with the families and relatives of the disappeared in Bangladesh and across the world while commemorating International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances. Enforced disappearances, along with an array of other grave human rights violations, are not new phenomenon in Bangladesh. However, state-sponsored human rights abuses, including enforced disappearances have become a systematic tool to suppress political opponents and silence dissenting voices since 2009, when the Awami League - led government assumed power. The issue of enforced disappearances has been discussed at various levels of the United Nations, including the Universal Periodic Review, for the past decade. Despite international criticism, the incumbent Awami League government has never taken the matter seriously.
- Category: IDD-AFAD-MO
30th August, 2021
Manila: Today, on the occasion of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) remembers the victims across the globe and extends solidarity to the families of the disappeared and countless human rights defenders fighting to put an end to impunity amid great challenges. According to the United Nations, enforced disappearance is more than “a human rights violation against an individual”. Enforced disappearances affect the entire family of the victim and is “used as a strategy to spread terror within the society”.
- Category: Statements
30th July, 2021
Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) remembers Masood Ahmed Janjua, a businessman from Pakistan whose disappearance became the first documented case of enforced disappearance in Pakistan. His case later sparked a movement against enforced disappearances in the country.
- Category: Statements
BANGLADESH: Investigate deadly factory fire, compensate victims
Dhaka/Paris; 13 July 2021: Bangladeshi authorities should conduct a prompt, thorough, and impartial investigation into a deadly fire, make the findings of the investigation public, and prosecute all those responsible, Odhikar and FIDH urged today.
- Category: Statements
Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Defence of Human Rights Pakistan, International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances, Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA), FIDH, CAGE and World Sindhi Congress welcome the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2021 proposed by Human Rights Minister Madam Shireen Mazari in Pakistan to criminalize the Act of enforced disappearance in the country.
- Category: Statements
STATEMENT ON THE INTERNATIONAL DAY IN SUPPORT OF VICTIMS OF TORTURE
26th June, 2021
Manila: The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) condemns the use of torture and inhuman treatment of individuals. AFAD stands in solidarity with those who have faced this egregious violation of human rights and commits to join their fight for justice.
Torture is used regularly against persons in prisons and under detention across Asia. The methods range from psychological to inflicting severe physical pain. The victims are invariably stripped naked, beaten with foot, fists and heavy objects, given electric shocks especially through genitals, hanging persons in various positions, burning with cigarettes, immersing body in salt water, and sexual violence against both men and women. Individuals may be threatened with harm to family or leaking of very personal information in public.
- Category: Statements
Dear All,
I am writing to tell you about what I feel when (24 Jestha) June comes along, what I have been going through for the last 17 years and experienced seeking justice. Once again, I am calling for your continuous support, not to let the justice system in the country collapse because an innocent child is killed and their parents need to die while seeking justice.