- Category: Statements
10 dicembre 2015 – Nel giorno dell’anniversario dall’adozione della Dichiarazione Universale sui Diritti Umani, la Federazione Asiatica contro le Sparizioni Forzate (AFAD) condanna con forza ogni forma di violenza da parte dello Stato, che sistematicamente viene commessa nei confronti dei propri cittadini in tutte le parti del nostro pianeta. Lo sfrenato perseguimento della ricchezza e del progresso per pochi, avviene a discapito della sofferenza di milioni di cittadini deprivati dei propri diritti. Anche in questa occasione, AFAD promette di lavorare costantemente al fine della promozione e della protezione dei diritti umani, con una specifica attenzione al diritto per tutte le persone di non essere soggette al fenomeno delle sparizioni forzate.
Dal momento dell’adozione della Dichiarazione Universale dei Diritti Umani, il rapimento e il conseguente allontanamento di decine di migliaia di madri, padre, mogli, mariti, figli, sorelle, fratelli e amici dai loro cari e dalle loro abitazioni è continuato imperterrito. Il Gruppo di Lavoro sulle Sparizioni Forzate dell’ONU riporta di 42.889 casi ricevuti, che coinvolgono 84 Stati, un numero destinato tuttavia a salire, se si contano tutte le altre situazioni di sparizioni forzate non regolarmente denunciate. La continuazione di questo deplorevole fenomeno ha fatto sì che le Nazioni Unite adottassero un documento specifico: la Convenzione Internazionale per la Protezione di Tutte le Persone dalle Sparizioni Forzate. Infine, il giorno 30 agosto, è stato proclamato “Giorno Internazionale degli Scomparsi”.
- Category: Statements
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.
- Category: Statements
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.
- Category: Statements
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.
- Category: Statements
Today marks 1,000 days since prominent Lao civil society leader Sombath Somphone “disappeared” at a police checkpoint on a busy street in Vientiane. We, the undersigned organizations, reiterate our call for the Lao government to intensify its efforts to conduct a prompt, impartial, and effective investigation into Sombath’s apparent enforced disappearance, to determine his fate or whereabouts, and to take the necessary measures to bring those responsible to justice.
At the second Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of Laos, held in Geneva on 20 January 2015, 10 states made recommendations to Laos to investigate Sombath’s disappearance. In addition, five states raised questions about the issue.
- Category: Statements
A Joint Statement by Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances, Asian Legal Resource Centre, The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders [a joint programme of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)]
1 September 2015 – On the occasion of the International Day of the Disappeared on August 30, families of victims of enforced disappearance, AFAD, ALRC, FIDH and Odhikar had jointly organised a commemorative event in Dhaka, Bangladesh to remember those who have been forcibly detained and whose fate and whereabouts remain unknown. However, less than 24 hours before the event was scheduled to take place, it was suddenly cancelled by the National Press Club where the event was slated to be held. In addition, families of the disappeared who were scheduled to speak during the event received threatening phone calls, and police were deployed to the National Press Club without an explanation. Our organisations have reason to believe that the Bangladesh government is behind this sudden cancellation of the event and the intimidation of victims' families, as part of a wider effort to silence any voices speaking out against Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh and to maintain impunity for these crimes which many claim have been committed by State authorities.
- Category: Statements
Paris, 30 August 2015: ASEAN member states must accelerate the process of ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPPED), FIDH said today on the occasion of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances.
“By becoming a state party to the ICPPED, states will have a legal obligation to investigate all cases of enforced disappearances and deliver justice to the victims and their families,” said FIDH President Karim Lahidji. “Governments will no longer be able to remain idle and rely on the belief that the passage of time will ultimately render cases of disappearances into obscurity.”
- Category: Statements
AFAD Statement
2015 International Day of the Disappeared
August 30, 2015 – Since the establishment of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) in 1998, it has been commemorating the International Day of the Disappeared every 30th of each year. This was first commemorated by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) for many years and adopted by similar formations in other parts of the world. As enforced disappearances reached global proportions, in 2011, the United Nations officially declared this day as the International Day of the Disappeared.
Today, AFAD pays tribute to the thousands of disappeared people in Asia and the world over, who, with their families and relatives, are AFAD’s reason for existence. As a form of tribute to the desaparecidos of the world, the International Day of the Disappeared commemoration, conducted in various forms by AFAD member-organizations, aims to raise the awareness on the phenomenon of enforced disappearance and to obtain concrete results of the struggle to attain the vision of a world without desaparecidos. On this occasion, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances reiterates its strong solidarity with the families of the disappeared in many different ways. In a special way, AFAD remembers all desaparecidos, some of whom are prominent names, such as those of Sombath Somphone of Laos; Jonas Burgos of the Philippines; Subarna Paudel of Nepal; Mushtaq Ahmad Khan of Jammu and Kashmir; Somchai Neelaphaijit of Thailand; Masood of Pakistan; Nurul Amin of Bangladesh; Wiji Thukul of Indonesia; Hwang Won of South Korea and Prageeth Eknaligoda of Sri Lanka. The names are many. The litany is long. Each disappeared person has a name, a life, a family.