- Category: Statements
A Forum Statement in Commemoration of the 2015 International Day of the Disappeared
27 August 2015, Quezon City, Philippines – All struggles against injustice represent the struggle of memory against forgetting. In commemoration of the International Day of the Disappeared, we, the families of the disappeared, human rights defenders, civil society organizations, members of the diplomatic community, students, acclaimed community leaders, who are gathered in this forum titled “Return Sombath Safely! Surface All the Disappeared,” renew our commitment to never forget the injustices brought upon the victims of enforced disappearances and their families, and intensify our call for truth and justice.
Organized by the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD), the forum aims to raise awareness on the cruel and inhuman practice of enforced disappearances. Enforced disappearances remains to be a global phenomenon; the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (UNWGEID) has received more than 53,000 cases of enforced disappearances from 84 states. Particularly, the forum highlights the case of Sombath Somphone, a Lao PDR citizen, who as of today has been disappeared for 986 days. Notable is that the global magnitude of enforced disappearances compelled the United Nations to adopt the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance with an independent monitoring body to ensure implementation.
- Category: Statements
Statement of the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances on the 10th Year of Mr. Masood Janjua’s Enforced Disappearance
Of all the agonizing hardships that a person has to face, it is the excruciating pain of waiting without certainty, which is the worst. A woman’s profound love endures a long wait. The relentless struggle in waiting with uncertainty amidst all odds for the return of a loved one is an important strength Amina Masood, Chairperson of Defence for Human Rights of Pakistan, has as she commemorates today her husband’s 10th anniversary of disappearance.
- Category: Statements
Freedom for Masood Janjua - Ten years too much!!
Here I am in the 10th year of struggle for the release of my secretly detained loving husband Masood Janjua. It suddenly transpired to me that it’s the 10th year and Masood is still detained!! Years and years of tireless efforts, sleepless nights and agonizing grief could not bring him back. It struck me with a newest intensity of pain like never before.
- Category: News
The book "From GRIEF to COURAGE" was launched July 24, 2015 at the Justitia Room, Ateneo Law School, Rockwell Center, Makati, Metro Manila
Video Presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXxmEUaQBDM
Photos
Best Practices in Advocating Legislation Against Enforced Disappearances
Posted by Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) on Friday, July 24, 2015
- Category: Statements
The Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) In Memory of the Courage of the Chinese People Who Sacrificed Their Lives at Tiananmen Square
June 4, 2015 - In solidarity with all freedom-loving peoples of the world, we are peacefully fighting against repression and impunity. Humanity born to freedom is alert to repel invasion of liberty by power-hungry rulers.
The gruesome massacre, which the Chinese people calls the June Fourth Movement, or the June Fourth Massacre, or Liu-Si Tucheng is a blatant reminder that people cannot be forever prisoners of their own conscience in the struggle for truth, justice and freedom. The Tiananmen Square uprising conjures the image of a lone anonymous person or the Tank Man, who courageously stood before a column of tanks preventing their advance to further annihilate the dissidents.
Twenty-six years after the June 4th gruesome crackdown against protesters mainly led by university students and intellectuals at Tiananmen (literally means, Gate of Heavenly Peace) Square, basic human rights and freedoms are still obscured by state authoritarianism. In China, people caught talking about the macabre dispersal, are thrown into jail to suffer hard labor.
- Category: Statements
May 25-29, 2015
Every last week of May, we commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared (IWD), a painful reminder that thousands of families still await information on the fate of their loved ones who have disappeared and thousands of disappeared persons are waiting to be freed from the unknown prisons where they are kept. The IWD was incepted by the Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM), which, in turn, was adopted by families of the disappeared across the world.
The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) and its 53 member-organisations campaign for the universal ratification and implementation of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPED), the recognition of the competence of the UN Committee on Enforced Disappearances and the enactment of domestic laws criminalizing enforced disappearances. It is the most emblematic way to pay tribute to the disappeared and their families.
- Category: Statements
May 24 -30, 2015 - This week, the Asian Federation Against Involuntary Disappearances and the rest of the global movement against enforced disappearances commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared. Around the world, family members, especially wives, mothers and daughters of victims of enforced disappearance have been trapped by the disappearance of their husbands, sons and brothers. They continue to be in a state of limbo, living with the haunting shadows of a cruel past. Families of the disappeared have been suffering from the social, psychological, legal, and economic effects of the disappearance of their loved ones.
Their unrelenting struggle for truth and justice has transformed them into courageous human rights defenders, propelled by the quest to stand up for their right to know the fate and whereabouts of their disappeared loved ones. Amidst pain, their courage and determination in the pursuit for truth and justice permit them to overcome the devastating consequences of enforced disappearance.
- Category: Statements
Freedom cannot be bestowed to the people, but must be fought and achieved. Freedom is much more than a right. It entails some responsibilities of doing what people think is good not only for themselves but for society in general. It is a state when one realizes their duties and starts respecting other’s freedom.
Twenty-three years ago, the Phruetsapha Thamin, or Black May popular protest participated in by 200,000 people, happened in Central Bangkok against the military government of General Suchinda Kraprayoon. In the four-day military crackdown, the popular uprising was met with brutal and violent suppression, resulting in 52 deaths, thousands arrested, hundreds injured. In the immediate aftermath of the shootings, more than a thousand people were reported missing by friends and relatives.